An Odd Feeling
by Relm Wanderer
Summary: Odd fic, where Zelgadis is put into a strange situation. A little sci-fi-ish I guess but takes place in Slayers reallity and time. ::Finally Finished and Posted::
1. An Odd Feeling

An Odd Feeling I wrote this fic when I probably shouldn't have. I was dizzy, I felt lightheaded, I had the biggest headache and for some weird reason I found everything around me incredably funny. But I did write it, and well it's title as you can guess has a parallel meaning that describes both the fic and my state of being when I wrote it. It's an odd story. And feel that I should warn you, if there will be any couple bias in it, it will be Zelgadis/Lina and Gourry/Sylphiel.   
  
~Relm Wanderer   
Founder of [Relm's Slayers Beyond Insanity][1]   
  


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## 

An Odd Feeling

By Relm

  


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Zelgadis woke up from a terrible nightmare cold with sweat and his clothes clung to him like a second skin. But upon waking the nightmare itself eluded Zelgadis and flew from his memory. His head hurt and felt groggy. Everything went by in a blur and he somehow found himself downstairs where everyone was eating. He was a bit mystified but shook it off and took an empty chair and sat down. Zelgadis was going to order himself a coffee but decided against it, because he didn't feel the need for it nor was he hungry. Lina and Gourry were as usual demolishing whatever food was on the table in front of them. Xellos was watching them intently or would be if his eyes were open and Amelia was trying to snatch at least a little bit of food for her to eat. Nothing unusual about any of this so Zelgadis didn't feel compelled to comment.   
  
"So what are we going to do today Miss Lina?" Amelia asked after Lina and Gourry at last finished off their feeding frenzy.   
  
"I don't know I guess we'll search up some chimera cure leads again for Zel."   
  
"Yes and I've heard that over in-" Zelgadis started to say but Lina cut him off.   
  
"I just wish he would get his but down here I don't want to wait all day." Lina glared up towards the stairs where Zel's room was.   
  
"Huh? What are you talking about I'm right here!" Zelgadis waved at Lina in front of her face. But she didn't seem to notice. No one did. That's when Zelgadis noticed something that he didn't notice when he came down initially. Everyone in the room was eating their meals normally and no one paid much attention to Lina and her companions. More importantly no one was paying attention to him. Even with his cloak and hood Zelgadis did attract odd stares. But now no one even gave him a second glance. In fact not even a first.   
  
"Maybe he's still sleeping? Perhaps one of us should go wake him up." Xellos grinned a twisted smile.   
  
"I'm going to go check up on him not you Xellos. Knowing you, you'd just find some way to bother him." Lina said sternly much to Xellos' disappointment.   
  
"No really Lina I'm right here!" Zelgadis got up right in front Lina but she kept on walking and went right through him. The sensation was so odd. It only lasted for a brief second but it seemed like an eternity to Zel. For a brief moment he felt tingles that went up and down his spine and all through his body. Images flashed through his head, that of people, faces he didn't recognize. His whole body felt like it was on fire but also frozen like ice all at the same time. But it wasn't an unpleasant experience for Zelgadis but it was too brief because Lina passed through and went up the stairs. Then the horror set in. No one could see, hear or touch him.   
  
"Amelia? Gourry? Xellos?! Can't anyone hear me?! WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Zelgadis flung himself around the room at people but they didn't notice him and his hands it went right through them. "Nooooooo! No…." Zelgadis crumpled to the ground and room spun around him.   
  
_Zel?_   
  
He couldn't stop the spinning it was like he was being turned around and around.   
  
_Hey Zel wake up!_   
  
He closed his eyes hoping everything would stop.   
  
"Zelgadis for the last time WAKE UP!" Lina screamed at Zelgadis' sleeping form. His eyes fluttered open hearing Lina's voice.   
  
'It was a dream. It was all a dream.' He sighed with relief.   
  
"God what's wrong with you today? Why can't you wake up?!" Lina spoke in annoyance shaking a form laying in a bed. Zelgadis was going to say something till he saw who Lina was shaking. He was looking standing next to the bed watching Lina shake himself. He staggered backwards. 'I'm over here, so how can I be on the bed too?'   
  
"Lina?" Zelgadis was sacred and went to put his hand on Lina's shoulder only to have his had go right through her.

   [1]: http://ami.animenetwork.com/relmwanderer



	2. An Odd Feeling

An Odd Feeling part 2   


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## An Odd Feeling

### Part Two

By Relm

  


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Lina glared at Zelgadis as she tried to wake him. Nothing she did seem to stir the sleeping chimera. She would have thought he was dead if didn't see his chest rise and lower with the rhythm of his breathing. But she wasn't aware of the invisible Zelgadis that had slumped off and started whimpering in the corner.   
  
"Zelgadis what the hell is wrong with you? Damnit I've never had this much trouble trying to get you up before. Or are you awake and just playing dead? Ha! Well I can see you breathing so just quit it you are starting to worry me!" Lina tried one more hard shake but he didn't wake. The invisible Zelgadis on the other hand had heard what she had said and dared to go near 'his body'. And there he saw himself sleeping very soundlessly, but alive. In some way this gave Zelgadis a bit of comfort. When his hand went through Lina and he had seen himself laying on a bed when he was standing over it, he had first thought that he was dead. So he was a bit relieved but now he was more confused then ever. Lina frowned, the only other thing she could think of doing was pouring water over his head but she didn't think that if he'd wake up that he'd appreciate it very much. 'Oh who cares if he's bothered or not! It's his fault anyway for not waking up in the first place!' Invisible Zelgadis stared at her wide-eyed as she dumped a whole pitcher of cold ice water on his sleeping form. But to both were surprised when the sleeping chimera didn't even budge. At this point Lina was very worried.   
  
"Well I don't know what the hell is going on here but I'm going to get someone, this can't be natural not even for a chimera." Lina headed towards the door with much haste and Zelgadis quickly followed. Down the stairs to where everyone was eating earlier, just like it was before. Zelgadis shuddered, he thought that he had been dreaming when he appeared in his room, but it wasn't a dream before. He just somehow shifted back to his room.   
  
"Guys there is something terribly wrong with Zelgadis."   
  
"What's wrong with him Miss Lina?" Amelia's eye's were as wide as saucers and had her hands clenched.   
  
"I can't wake him up. Not one bit at all. He's in this deep sleep that he doesn't want to come out of nor I doubt anyone would be able to get him out of."   
  
"So what if you can't wake him up? No one can wake me up and there's nothing wrong with me." Gourry dumbly smiled. Lina was very tempted to strike him in some matter but she refrained.   
  
"Yeah but Gourry that's the way you sleep. And you are human. Zel's a chimera with more sensitive hearing. And he's also a light sleeper on top of that so I should really have to problem waking him up."   
  
"Then what's wrong?"   
  
"I can't wake him up! I've tried yelling in his ears, shaking him, stealing his sheets, and I even poured water over his head! But he didn't wake. Meaning there is something wrong. And I wouldn't be surprised if it was a magic spell of some sort." Lina shot a look at Xellos.   
  
He faked looking hurt, "Oh no Miss Lina you don't think that I would have done something like this, now do you?" He tried to look all innocent a cute and Lina just smacked him on the head.   
  
"Of course this is something you would do! You always torment Zelgadis! So Xellos if you are responsible for this then release the spell and wake him up!" Lina grabbed him by the collar and brought him close so that she could stare him straight in the eyes. Lina's ruby eyes burned like to balls of fire. And they did burn because Xellos ended up having part of his cloak catch fire.   
  
"Miss Lina, as interesting and how much I wish that I had done this, I can assure that I have nothing to do with this nor did I any magic or any means to cause this to happen."   
  
"Good. Now all of you guys come with me and help to figure out a way to wake Zelgadis up.   
  


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A few days later they were no better then when they had started. No matter what they did Zelgadis refused to wake. They were getting desperate but they still had an ace up their sleeve. They had managed to get in contact with Sylphiel and she was due to arrive in town very soon. While the invisible, non-physical body Zelgadis wallowed deeper and deeper in depression. Though the others were hopeful that Sylphiel might be able to help Zelgadis himself wasn't so sure. Even if they could get him to wake up what would happen to him? He didn't even know if that sleeping body was him or not.   
  
"What about trying to locate him on the astral plane?"   
  
"I've already tried that. He's fine." Xellos himself was confused. From what he could sense and see there was absolutely nothing wrong with Zelgadis. And there didn't seem to be any traces of magic anywhere.   
  
Lina grumbled and put her head down. She like everyone else was a mess. None of them were sleeping well or eating much and they were all tired and stumped on the whole situation.   
  
"Hello is anybody there?" Sylphiel knocked on the door that the inn keep had told her that Zelgadis and the others were.   
  
"Oh Miss Sylphiel thank Cepheid that you are here! Can you do something for poor Mister Zelgadis?" Amelia clung to the shrine maiden. Sylphiel stroked her hair sympathetically with concern.   
  
"I don't Amelia but just let me take a look." Sylphiel walked over to where Zelgadis was sleeping. The chimera was in a deep sleep with absolutely no expression on his face. He didn't appear to be dreaming, but he wasn't moving at all like a normal sleeping person. Was just still and quiet, not one sound coming from him. "What were you guys doing the day before you found him like this?"   
  
"We had just gone to a library and got some books. Then we came to the inn to eat and get some rooms for the night."   
  
"Did any of you hear anything odd that night?"   
  
"No and we already went and asked everyone else in the building if they had. But everything was fine, it was a normal night just like any other."   
  
The invisible Zelgadis tried to remember what had happened that night. 'I remember getting those books and eating with everyone else. And I also remember going to my room, but what did I do after that?'   
  
Sylphiel pulled out a crystal pendulum and chanted some words softly under her breath while swinging it over Zel's head. A strange aura of light surrounded her. Her eyes were closed and she was deep in concentration when all of a sudden she let out a small cry and was thrown across the room against the wall by some unknown force.   
  
"Sylphiel are you all right?"   
  
"Yes I'll be fine but something like that has never happened before." Gourry helped her up and she tucked a few strands of hair with a shaky hand.   
  
"What were you trying to do?"   
  
"I was trying to sense what was going on in his mind but it was all dark and empty like a void and repelled me with some strong force."   
  
"Zel's mind repelled you?"   
  
"No not Zel's mind. I can't explain it but it was the mind of the body but not the person we know as Zelgadis." Sylphiel sat down on a nearby chair shivering. 'When did it get so cold?'   
  
"What do you mean not Zel's mind?! That doesn't make any sense!" Lina yelled. Though Sylphiel was shivering Lina was burning. All of a sudden the room seemed very hot to her.   
  
"I really don't know. But I do know that whatever it is, is breaking down."   
  
Lina was going to question that too but she didn't have a chance. As soon as Sylphiel had spoken everyone closed their eyes in pain. It was like when a harsh light is shined in your eyes and you close them involuntary. But there wasn't any light, more the opposite. Darkness swept the room. Even the spirit like Zelgadis was forced to close his eyes in pain. When they all managed to open their eyes they saw that the chimera that had been sleeping in the bed had vanished. 


	3. An Odd Feeling

An Odd Feeling, part 3   


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## An Odd Feeling

### Part Three

By Relm

  


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"WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!" Lina yelled, but no one answered her because they were just as confused as she was.   
  
"Where did Mister Zelgadis go?" Amelia looked frantically around the room. Though the overpowering darkness seemed to have been magical in nature there wasn't a signal trace of magic anywhere.   
  
"I don't know but I'm going to check something." Xellos said before he went into a trance like state. When he finally came out he bore a puzzled expression. "From what I can tell he's fine-"   
  
"But WHERE IS HE?!"   
  
"Apparently in this room." Everyone glared at Xellos. Then they looked around the room. The spirit like Zelgadis didn't even bother to use his voice. He figured they wouldn't be able to hear him anyway. He did nothing more then wave his hands in front of their eyes. When he got no reaction he slumped back on his chair.   
  
"Miss Lina, you said that you all went to a library and took out some books before this happened? Did Mister Zelgadis take out any?" Sylphiel glance around the room. It was relatively empty, but then Zel doesn't really have that many possessions in the first place. But what she did notice was three books on a nearby desk.   
  
"Yeah those three over there. We found them on the floor. I think he was reading them before any of this happened." Lina grumbled. She did even know what was going on, only that she didn't like it one bit.   
  
"May I please see them?"   
  
"Sure but I doubt you that they would do any good." Lina threw them over to Sylphiel. The first book was easily readable; it was on the different ways to break curses. And from Sylphiel knew of Zelgadis she could tell that he had tried them all before on previous adventures. The second book was bit worse for wear but it was a book on popular myths. A bookmark was on a fable about a chimera. And the third book was in bad condition. It was torn up in places and it was missing several pages at the end. But the worst part about it was that it was in a language she had never seen before.   
  
"Miss Lina can you read any of this?" Sylphiel thumbed through the mysterious book some more. She felt a small presence of magic in it. The book it's self was probably a spell book of some sort but it also had magical amplifying properties to it.   
  
"Not a word. And no one we ask can read it either. And we can't go back to the library until the librarian gets back from his trip." Lina glared at that book. She had poured over it for hours figuring that it might be the cause of what had conspired. The spirit like Zelgadis also figured that too and read over her shoulder, but like her couldn't make out a word of it. The weird thing was that Zelgadis knew that he should be able to read it. But something was blocking parts of his memory. And the longer he stayed in his non-tangible form the more trouble had trying to recall things. His memory was slowly being taken away bit by bit.   
  
"When will the librarian be back?"   
  
"He was supposed to be back yesterday. Oh when I get my hands on him!"   
  
"Miss Lina I doubt this is his fault. My guess it more or less has to do with this book."   
  
Sylphiel frowned, it was obvious that they needed to pay the good librarian a visit.   
  


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The librarian didn't show up that day, in fact he didn't show up till two days later. Lina practically tackled him when he finally came back into town. She dragged him back to his library along with everyone else. Zelgadis gloomily followed.   
  
"Now what exactly is the problem? And what happened to your chimera friend?" Mister Hender the librarian questioned Lina after he was in the main library. She had definitely startled him, but he could tell by the looks on all of their faces that something was terribly wrong.   
  
"Do you know this book?!" Lina held out said book which was of course the only book out of the three that Zelgadis had taken out that no one seemed to be able to read.   
  
"Oh yes that one! Your chimera friend took that one out. Did he find his cure like he was looking for?"   
  
"No that's the problem something has happened to him. First he was asleep and wouldn't wake up. We tried for days and nothing would wake him up. And then two days ago we were all forced to shut our eyes by some unknown force only to find Zel had disappeared when we opened them!" Lina yelled out waving her arms in the air while still holding the book.   
  
"May I please see that book?" Lina handed Mister Hender the book and put on his spectacles and started to read. "Oh my he didn't try this, now did he?" He mumbled to himself not able to bring himself to believe the conclusion that he had come up with.   
  
"WHAT?! What does it say?!"   
  
"Well in short Miss Lina if I had looked more closely at this book at little more then I wouldn't have let Mister Zelgadis borrow it. This book is from an ancient band of people. These people believed that with the power of the soul one could change anything by will." Mister Hender cleared his throat before going on. "This book itself is about changing ones own body. I believe Mister Zelgadis was planning to change his body to rid himself of his curse."   
  
Zelgadis rubbed his head. It hurt quite a bit all of a sudden but what the librarian did somehow seem right to Zelgadis.   
  
"But it didn't work! He was still the same and he was asleep too!" Lina felt like breaking something and huffed in anger.   
  
"Mister Hender I tried to see into Mister Zelgadis' mind but all I found was a dark void, and it physically repelled me. That wasn't Mister Zelgadis' mind in his body."   
  
"That's because the spell backfired. He was trying to use a spell to can his body only his soul couldn't do it. First of all mastering this sort of magic took this band of people centuries to perfect. I would imagine it would take a large considerable amount of time to grasp even the basic of concepts. Second he was trying to change the form of a body that wasn't his by birth."   
  
"What are you saying?"   
  
"You can only change stuff about yourself provided you are changing things that are natural for your body. In Mister Zelgadis' case he was turned into a chimera only a part him was like what he once was. So when he tried to change himself he only succeeded in separating himself from his chimera body."   
  
Everyone gasped and looked at Mister Hender with wide eyes.   
  
"He's dead?" Amelia dared to ask, but only in a whisper.   
  
"No he's not. When his created body was separated from his mind the chimera body had no human soul part to keep it all together. So without his human mind his chimera body could not keep physical shape. Which is why he disappeared. His spirit on the other hand was separated not killed. Until his spirit dies he's still alive. For now he's walking around like a ghost." Zelgadis shivered. He remember parts of casting the spell. Once when he had been young he had found some of Rezo's books about long dead tribes of people and the magic secrets that had died with them. It was the first time he had heard anything about a group of people which history only referred to them as soul casters. Rezo had tried to use a similar spell to change his eyes and make them see, but it failed. But little Zelgadis had been interested in the language of this band of people. It was a very rare occasion, Rezo actually sat down and taught Zelgadis how to read and write the soul casters language. It was one of the few fond moments Zelgadis had of insane great-grandfather.   
  
"Is there anyway to reverse the effects and return him back to normal?"   
  
"I really don't know. This book might have explain that only…"   
  
"Only what?!"   
  
"Only about the last thirty pages are missing." 


	4. An Odd Feeling

An Odd Feeling, part 4   


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## An Odd Feeling

### Part Four

By Relm

  


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"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT HE CASTED THAT DAMN SPELL WHEN HE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE THE WHOLE THING?!" Lina screamed very, very loud. Oh the pains in her forehead were throbbing and popping out. In this case Zelgadis was actually glad that no one could see him otherwise he would have to deal with Lina's wraith.   
  
"Yes it would assume so Miss Lina. But I'm certain that there must be a few books in the library that could help us find a way to return Mister Zelgadis back to normal." Mister Hender tried to calm the fiery haired dragon spooker so not to have damage caused to his library.   
  
"Mister Hender do you really think we can find a way to return Mister Zelgadis back to normal?"   
  
"We have to. Or otherwise he dies." Everyone stared at Mister Hender in shock.   
  
"What do you mean?! You said that he was just walking around as a spirit and that he isn't dead!"   
  
"For the time being he's like a ghost. But he's not supposed to be in that form like this. If he stays long enough like this his spirit will die if it's not return to physical form." Mister Hender started looking through the shelves of the library.   
  
"But his body disappeared! He has no physical form to return to!"   
  
"Which is why we have to find a book with the information we need and fast. I do find it odd that Mr. Zelgadis would do something so gravely endangering himself just to cure his body. But in way he succeeded."   
  
"What are you talking about?" Lina glared at him.   
  
"His soul is what it was before he was a chimera. Even though he's walking around as a ghost his ghost body is in the form of what he once was."   
  
Zelgadis looked at him in shock. "What is he talking about I'm not…" Zelgadis' eyes bugged out further. For the first time since he this whole thing had happened he realized that his body was not the same bluish stony texture. It was a flesh tone, and his hair was soft not hard like steel. In any other case he would have been jumping for joy but he didn't really care at this moment.   
  
"But in any case we should stop talking and start searching." Mr. Hender glanced at the many books in the massive library.   
  
"Where do we look?"   
  
"I really have no idea." (facefault and sweatdrops all around)   
  
"But you're a librarian! Librarians are supposed to know where books are!" Lina fumed. She was about ready to charge up a fireball to throw in a fit of anger, but considering how much damage that would cause the library and that they still needed to find a book in there, she refrained from doing so.   
  
"I never used to be a librarian, that was always my father's ambition. I was a teacher at a school for gifted scholars and mages. So we both had a love for old books. But my father was a stubborn man and even kept running this library when he was sick and could barely move. Everyone begged him not run the library and hand over the job to someone else. He didn't and all the work killed him. He went to bed one day and never got up in the morning. I took over the library after that, three years ago. My dad knew where everything was in this place. Even after three years I'm still lost on where everything is. It's all organized well I know that, but I have no idea in what manor or subject." Mister Hender pulled out a few books and put them back. "Just look for any books with the same writing as the book Mister Zelgadis used that caused all this trouble. Or anything that might help." Each one went to a respective direction and started to search.   
  


* * *

  
Zelgadis stared at Lina as she poured the books in front of her. Her brow was creased and eyes narrowed. It had been four hours since they had started their search for a way to help Zelgadis. Since then they hadn't found anything useful. As the minutes turned to hours and passed, Zelgadis was losing hope that they would be able to help him. "I'm going to die and it's all because I wanted my damn cure so badly!" He yelled out his frustrations knowing that even though he was in a library it didn't matter how noise he made. He stared back to Lina again. She looked just as frustrated as he was feeling. But she kept going with it book after book after book. They all were. It really surprised Zelgadis. He never knew that they would even care so much about it him. But then Zelgadis was noticing a lot more about them then he had ever before. He always used to be focus on getting a cure and what the situation was that he never really took the time really understand his friends. Sure he considered them friends, but he still wasn't that close to them. He had thought that they were the same way, but he realized that he was wrong.   
  
Zelgadis while not having much he can do experimented with his ghost like body. He found out that all he needed to do was think really hard about being next to somebody and he'd appear right next to them. Some were harder then others. Like he found it more difficult to appear near Xellos then he would Lina. And he was also aware what each one of them was doing. He even knew that Gourry despite how hard he was trying had fallen asleep in the middle of reading a book. That didn't bother Zelgadis that much; he wasn't expecting Gourry to be much of a help anyway. More time ticked away and the more Zelgadis wished that they would stop for the day. They were all tired and not getting anywhere and he had almost given up anyway. But he couldn't tell them to stop because they couldn't hear him. "They probably wouldn't listen to me even if they could." He sadly smiled. Mr. Hender had suggested they take a break and Lina refused. She said that she didn't want to waste time by taking a break.   
  
Lina herself was worried. She didn't like having a challenge in front of her that she couldn't do and she didn't like the thought of Zelgadis must be gong through. The thought of not having a physical body and no one being able to hear, touch or see you gave her cold shivers.   
  
"Damnit Zelgadis why did you do this to yourself?" Lina said in a whisper. Mr. Hender had told them earlier that though Zelgadis may be like a ghost he wasn't oblivious to them. He could hear and see them even though they couldn't towards him. She had no way of knowing of whether or not he was anywhere near her, but she assumed he was anyway. And she assumed right. "I wish I could remember what was going through my head when I was going to cast the spell Lina, I really do." Zelgadis rubbed his head. His memory was fading even more then before. He was even having trouble trying to remember things that he shouldn't forget. Like what Rezo looked like, what was home like, who his parents were… Which was one of the reasons why stayed close to Lina. Most of his memories that he had with his friends were with her. And as long as he had her in his sights the harder it was for him to forget. But even that was starting to become less effective. He was starting to forget why he hated Xellos so much and even how Lina defeated Shabringdo. It scared him a lot.   
  


* * *

  
Two more hours later Lina was still searching through the books, but mostly everyone else had left. Not even her rumbling stomach was tearing her away from those books. Or at least not for long.   
  
"Mr. Hender, I going to come back tomorrow alright?" Lina closed the book she was reading and looked over to the librarian.   
  
"Alright Miss Lina, I'll see you then. Don't bother putting anything away. Or otherwise it might be hard to figure out which books we have already looked at."   
  
"Sure. Bye."   
  
"Bye."   
  
Lina walked in a daze back to the inn. She was very hungry but very tired as well. So tired that when the waitress came to ask her what she wanted when she was at a table that she didn't even answer him for a few minutes. She was in a total daze, but eventually snapped out of it and ordered her food. She was silent and slow at eating her meal. It was like she didn't even taste what she was eating or even aware that she was eating. Her mind was elsewhere still trying to figure out ways to help Zelgadis.   
  


* * *

  
Lina crashed on her bed and fell asleep almost immediately. Zelgadis sat in the same chair that he had been sitting at the other nights watching Lina sleep. One-way of determining that Zel wasn't a just your average ghost was that he needed to sleep. He would sit and watch Lina until sleep over took him. His dreams where dark. They were cold and dark and empty. He couldn't see anything and it was lonely and frightening. Which is one of the reasons he stayed up watching Lina. He didn't want to fall asleep, he didn't want to have those dreams and he didn't even know what he was dreaming about. One thought that came to mind that he didn't like was that he was dreaming about what death would be like. That thought disturbed him like it was right now and went to get up to pace around the room when he lost his balance. He fell forward and his ghostly body made contact with Lina's sleeping one. That same odd tingling sensation with the fire and ice happened to Zelgadis again only something different happened as well. He felt like he was being pulled and all of a sudden he wasn't in Lina's room but in a quiet meadow with trees and flowers. Lina was sitting by one of those trees toying with a little flower… 


	5. An Odd Feeling

An Odd Feeling part 5   


* * *

  


## An Odd Feeling

### Part Five

By Relm

  


* * *

  
'Where am I?' Zelgadis stared around in wonder. The meadow area wasn't one that he recognized, but considering his memory loss it's quite possible that he would have just forgotten.   
  
"I was in Lina's room and she was sleeping. Then I fell and appeared here. But how did I get here?" Zelgadis mused to himself.   
  
"Zelgadis?" Lina had dropped the flower she had in hand and was staring wide-eyed at him. "Is that you?"   
  
"Yo-you can see me?!" Zelgadis was just as shocked as she was. 'How can she see me? I must be dreaming. Oh wait that's it! Lina was sleeping when I fell on her, I must have been pulled into her dream!'   
  
"Is that what you look like when you are human?" Lina stepped over to Zelgadis. If she had not heard his voice or if he wasn't wearing the same clothes as he normally did Lina probably wouldn't have recognized him.   
  
Zelgadis looked at her a bit blankly until he remembered that he was technically cured. "Um yeah that's right. Lina do remember what you were trying to do earlier?"   
  
"Earlier when?"   
  
"Before you went to sleep."   
  
"I'm dreaming right now?" Lina's mind was a bit muddled because she was in a dream but now she could remember all about what happened to Zelgadis. "Yes we were trying to find a way to help you."   
  
"I'm beginning to think that I'll never be able to be normal again." Zelgadis slumped down.   
  
"WHAT?! What are you talking about?! You are going to be returned back to normal! There's no hells way I'm going to give up till the end you idiot!" Lina whapped him on the head. "But what the hell were you thinking when you decided to try that spell?! I'd understand if you were stupid like Gourry or something but damnit you are smarter then that!"   
  
"I guess I just got too desperate."   
  
The two of them were silent for a few moments.   
  
"So are you enjoying being like a spirit Zel?" Lina joked. He just looked at her with an annoyed expression.   
  
"No but I'd better get used to it, because I'm probably going to end up dead anyway. And it's probably useless for me to even be talking to you like this because you'll probably just forget everything when you wake up." Zelgadis just picked up a stone and threw it.   
  
"Hey wait how did you end up in my dream anyway?!" Lina glared at him.   
  
"Well, am, um that is a um…" Zelgadis sputtered up blushing bright red.   
  
"Well what Zelgadis?!" Lina grabbed him by the shirt and brought him to eye level.   
  
"I don't think that matters right now do you?" Zelgadis laughed nervously.   
  
"Oh but I think it does." Her eyes narrowed further. She would have done something further if there hadn't been a large crash somewhere to their left.   
  
"Now what was that?" Lina and Zelgadis looked around the dreamscape. Parts of it looked fine and other parts were breaking down and being destroyed.   
  
"I guess when I got sucked into your dream my mind started to affect the surroundings too."   
  
"What do you mean by that?!"   
  
"As the hours and days pass I'm having more and more trouble trying to remember things. My memory is starting to completely fail me. I guess once that happens I'll be dead."   
  
"How much of your memory has been lost?"   
  
"Quite a bit, I don't think I have much time left."   
  


* * *

  
Mr. Hender walked around the library. He had woken up early and couldn't get back to sleep. 'Besides it's better this way anyway. Miss Lina and the others will probably be here soon.' They had covered quite a bit of the library the day before but there was still a lot more to be done. "Okay then I might as well start early."   
  


* * *

  
Lina opened her eyes slowly. She didn't really want to wake up the rays of the sun were forcing her to wake. She was going to take her pillow and put it over her head until she noticed that she wasn't sleeping on her pillow. Her head was resting on someone's shoulder. She didn't dare move and she was still as a statue. The reason being because of whose shoulder her head was on. She could see by the ivory tunic that it was in fact Zelgadis. She didn't move because she was shocked out of her mind. 'How is this possible?' And yet Lina didn't even look up to his face. It was like as if she looked him in the face he would disappear again. Nor did she speak either.   
  
Zelgadis himself was just waking up. When his eyes opened slightly he could see a spill of red hair resting on his right shoulder. 'Oh it's only Lina. WHAT?!' His mind finally processed it. 'Now how the hell did this happen?! And how is that she's able to touch me? Can she see me too?' But Zelgadis himself didn't move or speak. He was also having the feeling that if he did something that he would disappear again. So they both sat there in silence. Both wondering what the other was thinking but unable to talk.   
  
Lina couldn't take this anymore.   
  
"Zelgadis?" She dared to ask him cringing. But Zelgadis didn't disappear again.   
  
"Lina can you hear me?!" Asked with a hopeful tone.   
  
But Lina couldn't hear him. She could feel by the vibrations from Zelgadis that he had said something.   
  
"I guess I can't hear you. Well it was a long shot anyway. At least I can see and feel you so that's a plus. But I wonder why?" Lina was confused she hadn't been expecting this. Lina looked up to look at him in the face and all of a sudden she felt a loss of tangibleness on what she was leaning against. She was now on the bed looking at the sheets where Zelgadis had been. "Damnit I knew that I shouldn't have looked! Arghh!" Lina pounded on the sheets.   
  
Zelgadis just got up off the bed with a solemn expression on his face. "I knew it was too good to be true."   
  
Lina herself got up off the bed and walked past Zelgadis only she stopped when her hand went through his. Zelgadis himself felt that same tingling feeling of ice and fire but only this time Lina could feel it as well.   
  
"What the hell?! Zel is that you?" Lina looked blindly around her room in confusion.   
  
"You can feel that too?!" Zelgadis tried to ask her. But then he remembered that she couldn't hear him. So instead he took her hand and lightly fingered the word yes on her palm.   
  
"Gods, it really is you." Lina laughed out. "Well we'd better go see the others so that we can tell them what happened. I've got a good feeling that things are going to be brighter today." 


	6. An Odd Feeling

An Odd Feeling, part 6   


* * *

  


## An Odd Feeling

### Part Six

By Relm

  


* * *

  
Lina and Zelgadis went downstairs to go meet everyone and eat but no one was there yet.   
  
"Damnit how early am I?" Lina glanced around till she saw the clock in the corner. By it's time it was 7:30. Lina gaped at the time. "Why the hell am I up so early! I went to bed late too!" She grumbled with her head hitting the table.   
  
Zelgadis knew exactly why she had woken up so early, it was his fault. His influences on the dreamscape made everything unstable and the dream was ended abruptly. 'I would tell her if I could, but maybe it's better that I can't.' Zelgadis chuckled and gave her a light pat on the back that she did feel.   
  
"I bet it's your fault." Lina brought her head up to glare in Zelgadis' general direction.   
  
"Whoes fault Miss?" The waitress asked Lina while standing at her table.   
  
"Oh nothing! (nervous laughter) I'm ready to order I want this, this, this…" Lina started listing while Zelgadis just blanked out and stopped listening. Only a minute had passed and when Zelgadis looked back at Lina she had already finished eating and everyone else was there and had finished eating.   
  
'Now that didn't just happen in a minute did it? No it didn't. I really must have phased out there…' Zelgadis found that unsettling. That so much time could go by without him noticing.   
  
"… so that's what happen." Lina finished explaining. Everyone minus Lina and Zelgadis sweatdropped. "What?!" Lina demanded.   
  
"You talk too much as always…" Gourry stated and received a plate smashed over his head for the trouble.   
  
"Say Miss Lina… how did Zelgadis get into your dream anyway?" Xellos looked over at her with an eye half open.   
  
"Eeep! I don't know! He didn't tell me!" Of course Lina had left out some details when she told them about what happened. Like for instances how she woke up. So at this moment everyone was looking at her while both she and Zelgadis were blushing a million shades of red.   
  
"Hmm…. I wonder why wonder why…" Xellos grinned mischievously. "Oh and how did you wake up again?"   
  
Lina was now blushing brighter then she had ever before in her life. And she was only rivaled by Zelgadis.   
  
"Ah that doesn't matter right now! We should head over to the library right now!" Lina said with nervous laughter while rubbing the back of her neck. She rushed out the door before anyone could say anything.   
  


* * *

  
Mr. Hender was looking through a book when Lina came breezing in while everyone else came in behind her.   
  
"Oh hello Miss Lina-"   
  
"I have to tell you something! I saw Zelgadis in my dream!"   
  
"Hmm… that's interesting. But how is you dreaming about Mister Zelgadis a help?"   
  
Lina frowned. "No I wasn't dreaming about Zelgadis! He was in my dream. I saw him after I woke up and I could both see and feel him."   
  
Mr. Hender gasped in surprise. "You were able to do that?! What happened after that? Oh and how did he end up in your dream anyway?" Both Lina and Zelgadis facefaulted.   
  
"N-n-nevermind that! I was able to see and feel him but I couldn't hear him. And it wasn't until I looked up at his face that he disappeared again."   
  
Mr. Hender thought quietly for a few moments. That did sound familiar to him. "Did anything else happen after that?"   
  
"Yeah I got up and on my hand I got this weird tingly hot and cold sensation on my hand. I asked Zelgadis if that was him and he fingered out the word yes on my hand."   
  
"Okay then let's conduct a little test. First of all Mister Zelgadis I want to you touch Lina's arm."   
  
Zelgadis looked at the librarian confused but did what he was told. And both Lina and Zelgadis felt the same sensation.   
  
"Did you feel anything Miss Lina?"   
  
"Yes I did on my left arm."   
  
"Alright now Mister Zelgadis I want to touch Miss Amelia's arm." Zelgadis now saw his logic and complied. He felt the strange sensations again only this time Amelia herself didn't feel them. "Miss Amelia did you feel anything?"   
  
Amelia frowned looking her disappointed. "No I didn't."   
  
"Ah yes that sounds right…" Mr. Hender mumbled to himself as he went looking over to some of the new books that he had acquired on his recent trip for the library. Since he had been busy ever since he got back he hadn't had the time to pull the books out of the box yet.   
  
"What sounds right?!" Lina said in a very dangerous tone.   
  
"You were the only person whose dream he entered right?"   
  
"Yes. Your point?"   
  
"Well basically since he was in your dream you're the only one who can feel him. Oh and Mister Zelgadis, I would advice you to enter Miss Lina's dream again tonight, because I'm certain that it will have more positive effects." Mr. Hender went back to the books and was having trouble finding the books he wanted and just ended up dumping the whole box. He picked up five books and placed them on the table. He started looking through them while everyone watched him with interest.   
  
"Mr. Hender? Do you know of a way to help Mister Zelgadis?"   
  
"That depends on something. Miss Lina in the dream was there anything weird that happened in it?" Mr. Hender didn't even look up to Lina when he asked his question. He was glued to the books he was looking through leafing through them very quickly.   
  
"Well the dream was normal. I was in a soft green meadow and sitting under a tree. Um then I saw Zelgadis and he was human-"   
  
"What did he look like?!" Amelia pounced on Lina with that question interrupting her.   
  
"Um same height, human skin, light lavender hair that was still in the same hairstyle, eyes still the same and his ears weren't pointed."   
  
"Wow I wish I could have seen him." Amelia went all starry-eyed with hearts and stars surrounding her. Everyone sprouted sweatdrops except Zelgadis himself was shuddering.   
  
"Well that's nice. Miss Lina could you please continue?" Mr. Hender said ignoring the little scene that had just occurred.   
  
"Okay I saw Zel and he and I talked a bit. Then something else happen only I'm having trouble remember what it was…" Lina rubbed her head trying to remember. In fact Zelgadis himself was having trouble trying to remember. But then it hit him.   
  
"Lina the dreamscape collapsing!" Zelgadis said to her but then he remembered that she couldn't hear him. So he fingered the word 'boom' on Lina's arm.   
  
"Huh? Boom? What's that got to do with anything Zelgadis? Oh yeah now I remember! There were explosions and stuff in the dream. Zel said it was because of his minds influence in the dream. Because his memory is going on him it was affecting his mind."   
  
"Yes that sounds right. Once he completely looses his memory his spirit will die. Because his mind is all that's keeping him together right now. Once that goes he got nothing left to hold him together."   
  
"And this helps in someway?" Lina prompts.   
  
"Yes it does. I know the situation now."   
  
"And?"   
  
"I might have a way to cure him." 


	7. An Odd Feeling part 7

An Odd Feeling, part 7 

An Odd Feeling

Part Seven

By Relm

~*~

"WHAT?!" Was more less what everyone said in very loud and shocked voices after Mr. Hender spoke. 

"Yes I might have a way to cure Mr. Zelgadis." Mr. Hender went back to flipping through the books in front of him. Everyone just glanced at him blankly. 

"How though?" 

"Sit down at the table and I'll explain." Everyone complied and seated themselves at the table and awaited for Mr. Hender to speak. "Alright know that we have to return Mr. Zelgadis back to his physical form soon or he dies right?" 

Everyone nodded deftly. 

"And you all know that his chimera body disappeared right?" 

Again silent nods. 

"So basically we have no traces of his chimera body to work with." Everyone just gave him odd looks. 

"And your point is?" 

"My point is that what we need is a trace of his normal body to work with." Mr. Hender was given more odd stares only these were ones of confusion. 

"And just how and why would we need to do that?" Lina prompted. 

"Well if I could get hold of some of Mr. Zelgadis' current body cells I can create a koppi of his body to return his soul to." Mr. Hender marked a spot in one of his books and went looking through and another. 

"But making a good koppi takes at least a week to make! Zel doesn't have that long!" 

"Miss Lina calm down. Actually with my resources and current knowledge of creating koppis I can make a very good koppi within a few hours. The only difference is that the koppi wouldn't have a mind, meaning it would really have no soul. Making one with memories and a mind would take longer but that isn't needed. If I can make a mindless and soulless koppi of Mister Zelgadis I can with the information in this book (Mr. Hender points at the book that he put a bookmark in) I can create a spell that will put Mr. Zelgadis' mind and soul into that koppis body making it him truly." The book Mr. Hender had pointed at was one that appeared to have been written in a similar language of the book Zelgadis had used that caused this whole mess. It wasn't the same language but it was very close. Everyone looked at Mr. Hender with hopeful eyes. Well almost everyone. 

"But Mr. Hender you are forgetting one detail." Lina said in a very calm and serious tone. 

"Oh what?" 

"Just how are we supposed to get some of Zel's current body cells? He doesn't have a body to get them from." Lina gave him a very dark look. Everyone's hopeful expressions were lost and replaced by ones of disappointment. 

"Actually Miss Lina that is were you come in. Since Zelgadis entered your dream you were able to touch him after you woke up correct? If he enters your dream tonight you should somehow be able to get some of his cells. Like a bit of his hair would do." Lina gave that some thought. 'Yeah that could work.' A small smile spread on Lina's face. Zelgadis on the other hand was a little more concerned with something else. He fingered out the word 'mind' on Lina's arm. 

"Mind? What would that have to do with anything? Oh wait. Mr. Hender you said that you could pull Zel's mind and soul into the koppi body, but Zelgadis' mind is already going on him. He's losing his memory. If this works will his mind be the same as it once was or will some of his memory be permanently lost?" Again everyone's hopeful faces darkened. Mr. Hender himself didn't seem as sure as he was before. 

"I'll admit it might be a gamble, he might not remember anything that he lost. But there is still the chance that he might gain his full memory back once in physical form. That or he could just have some of his memory lost temporarily. We really wont know till we try now will we. What's better, a Mr. Zelgadis whom cannot remember some things but at least is alive or one that is dead?" 

Everyone looked at each other. There was a bit of uneasiness about the whole thing but there was a unanimous agreement. 

"Alright we'll go for it. Is there anything we can do right now?" 

"At the moment some of you could help me prepare the apparatuses for the experiment." Mr. Hender went and got his keys and unlocked a door that lead downstairs to the library basement. Everyone followed and they were surprised to see a very large laboratory. "I used to be a science teacher as well as many other things at the school I used to teach at. That's part of the reason why I know so much about koppis. When I came back here to take over for my dad I move my lab here into the basement. I figured that it might come in handy someday. It seems that I was right." Mr. Hender then said something softly under his breath and four staffs around the lab lit up with light spells. 

"Mr. Hender since Mister Zelgadis needs to enter Miss Lina's dream again in order to get the cell samples shouldn't she be put to sleep now with a sleep spell?" Amelia looked around the room and screamed when a creature jumped on her from behind. 

"Popo there you are! I've been wondering where you have been." Mr. Hender said to the little creature whom had scared Amelia. It was about the size of bowling ball and it was blue and had a spiky back with a little purple and blue tail that had a little puffy ball like thing at the end. It's eyes where closed and it was smiling plus his belly was purple. 

"What is that?" Everyone came around to see the blue creature which was currently floating around. 

"You know I really have no idea." Mr. Hender said in a thoughtful tone. Everyone facefaulted. "He was found floating around a town somewhere lost. I've had him around here for a few months and in that time I've managed to find out that his name is Popo and that he can control the element of ice." 

"Control?" 

"Yeah he can make things of ice, freezing winds and other cold things appear and he can move and control them. He's a bit mischievous but all in all he's good natured and doesn't like to hurt people. Popo why don't you go back upstairs and watch over the library for me?" Mr. Hender said with a smile to the little thing. 

"Pido pwapsssppl." Popo grinned larger and disappeared. 

"What happened to him?" 

"Oh he just disappeared and reappeared in the library. Makes me wonder if he's got some monster part of him because I don't know of anything else that can teleport like that. Funny thing is that he can't teleport if there is something touching him. Anyway what was it that you were asking me?" 

"I was asking if Miss Lina should be put to sleep now with a sleep spell so that Mister Zelgadis can enter her dream." 

"No we can't do that. It has to be a natural sleep, not one induced by magic. And second they have to be alone. So we'll just have to wait till night." 

They started the setup until they heard a large banging sound. They rushed upstairs to find that one of the older and more fragile bookshelves had fallen on Popo whom wasn't very happy about it. When they managed to get the bookshelf off him, Popo floated around making whimpering noises. But after a little healing spell he was fine. After that little incident Mr. Hender decided that it would be safer for Popo to stay with them where they could see him. Popo sulked on one of the steps next to where Zelgadis was sitting. 

"You okay there little guy?" Zelgadis though knew it was silly asked Popo. First of all he couldn't understand anything that Popo said and chances are that Popo doesn't understand humans himself. Second no one could hear him anyway let alone a little blue creature. But to Zelgadis' surprise Popo nodded his head they turned to Zelgadis and smiled. 

"You can see me?" 

Again Popo nods. 

"Well I'll be damned. You don't by chance speak human do you?" 

Popo shook his head. 

"Oh well better then nothing." 

~*~

So while everyone was working on the setup Zelgadis and Popo where having their own little chats even though they were a bit one sided. Mr. Hender and everyone did take their breaks to eat and stuff but no one seemed to notice Popo and Zelgadis' little chats. But Zelgadis ended his conversation with Popo when Lina was going to leave and get something to eat. It wasn't quite time for dinner yet but Lina was being forced to leave and try to get to bed early. He followed her into restaurant and watched her eat a relatively small amount of food. But Lina wasn't really that hungry. She was actually very tired due to the fact of all the thinking and working she had been doing these past few days not to mention the fact that he hadn't been sleeping well. But neither saw that there wasn't something right about her sleepiness or did they see the dark figure staring at both of them. 

"Looks like something is going in our favor huh Zel? I can barely keep my eyes open." Lina yawned and went to her room where Zelgadis soon followed. She crashed on her bed and fell into immediate sleep. Zelgadis tried to enter her dream as he had did the night before but something was wrong. A darkness surrounded Lina and her face contorted into one of silent pain. 

"What's going on?! Lina!" Zelgadis yelled trying to shake her or something but his hands went right through her. He could see her screaming or at least trying to. 

"Oh so concerned about her are we?" A darkly toned voice spoke. 

"Who are you?" Zelgadis dared to ask voice. 

"Oh you don't know?" The voice cackled. Zelgadis was getting dizzy. The voice was coming from all around him from very direction like there were many people talking all at once from all around him, yet it sounded singular like one voice. 

"No I don't." Zelgadis was having trouble standing. He looked in horror as Lina did scream this time, she was in a lot of pain. "Stop it! Leave her alone." 

"Oh but I can't Zelgadis. I've been denied too long of what I want." And then horror set in, Zelgadis recognized whom the voice belonged to. 

~*~


	8. An Odd Feeling part 8

An Odd Feeling, part 8 

An Odd Feeling

Part Eight

By Relm

~*~

"How? How is this possible?!" Zelgadis whispered to himself. 

"Oh so then you do know who I am." The dark voice cackled again before taking shape in front of Zelgadis. The creature was blue and green with large odd looking eyes. The weirdest thing about the creature is that it had black shadows surrounding him and his eyes glowed red. The creature cackled once more before taking a slightly more human form with blue and green skin and blue hair. His eyes remained red. 

"How can you be alive?! You should have disappeared-" 

"Along with our golem part? Oh no Zelgadis we've just been separated. I'm finally been freed." The demon cackled once more. When Zelgadis was still a chimera this demon was his demon part of him. The part of him that gave him most of his power but was controlled by Zelgadis' mind. "It's about time I got my chance to do what I please. You used my power and strength and you shut me out of anything not letting me have any say in anything we did." 

"If I had you would have killed and tortured everyone you could!" Zelgadis advanced forward to the demon but he held up his hand towards Lina's sleeping form with a dark smile. 

"You don't want to be responsible for something bad happening to the lovely red haired sorceress?" Zelgadis froze in his tracks. 

"What do you want with her?!" 

"I want to do the same thing to her that I've wanted to do her for a long time…" 

"What?!" 

"Make her suffer and die." The demon said as he turned into black vapor and surrounded Lina and disappeared. 

"LINA!" Zelgadis ran to her but he was too late the demon was already in her dream. She was still breathing but her whole body had turned cold and blue. "Damnit leave her alone!" Zelgadis tried again to enter Lina's dream but as he did pain erupted in his senses and made him stumble back. "I can't do it! No this is my fault I have to do something!" Zelgadis braced himself and lunged himself into the dream ignoring his pain. 

~*~

Meanwhile the rest worked hard on the setup, even Popo was helping out. 

"Mr. Hender if Mister Zelgadis' is still in this spirit form exactly how would Miss Lina be able to get some of his hair?" 

"After the dream Miss Lina could actually touch Mister Zelgadis, he had a physical form there. Now if she had tried to get his hair then it wouldn't have worked because it would have just disappeared after that. But if he goes in again the hair that Miss Lina would be able to get wouldn't be able to disappear because Miss Lina would still be able to see Mister Zelgadis." 

"Really she'd be able to see him?" 

"Yeah but she probably wont be able to actually to hear him though. There almost finished. If things keep on going as good as they are then Mister Zelgadis will be cured in no time!" Mr. Hender said in a small triumphant smile. 

~*~

Inside the dreamscape everything was dark, cold and stormy. Parts of the place would crumble under the feet while others would appear dead. The trees were black and ground was dark gray and the sky was in-between. What really disturbed Zelgadis is that he didn't know if it was the demon's influence in the dream that was causing the dreamscape to go so nuts or if it was his own. 

"Lina? Where are you?" Zelgadis called out in the hostile dreamland. But the wind and thunder took his voice and made it from not carrying far. He walked around aimlessly having no clue where to start looking. That is until he saw a faint flash of red far off to the distance. Zelgadis knew that it was Lina because the only color that he saw around him was that of him himself. The land bore no color. 

He rushed over to her to find half her body from the waste down encased in ice. "Lina!" 

"Zelgadis watch out magic doesn't work on him!" Lina yelled to Zelgadis while the demon threw another freeze arrow at her feet. Now she was up past her stomach. The demon appeared in front of Zelgadis. 

"Oh so you braved the pain to save her huh? Well you are to late you can't stop me!" The demon cackled once more and was cut short when Lina threw another fireball at him. The demon just stood there as the fireball went right through him. "See? You can't hurt me with magic and I have no physical form for you strike!" 

"I don't know about that, you seemed pretty afraid of me hurting you back in there." Zelgadis chanted under his breath while the demon got a fearful look in its eyes before it smiled again with a smug look. 

"No you can't cast anything! Alright yes you could hurt me like that but if you do cast any magic you run the risk of doing some serious damage to little Lina's mind." Zelgadis lowered his hands and discontinued casting the spell. "Ha ha! I've won, you can't do anything to stop me!" 

"Oh I don't think so." Zelgadis unsheathed his sword and charged the demon. Off course since Zelgadis was normal now and had lost it's demonic speed the demon managed to easily parry each of Zel's attacks. The demon smiled again knowing there was no way that he could be stopped. That was until something rather odd happened. A strange aura appeared around Zelgadis and his speed and strength tripled. Zelgadis pulled his sword out of the demon's stomach and the demon staggered back. 

"You've think you have won? Mark my words I'll be back. On and a little parting message, this was all in vain." The demon gave one last cackle as he disappeared. 

'What did he mean by-' Zelgadis' thoughts were interrupted by Lina whom was shrieking. The ice starting to spread and was now almost at her shoulders. 

"Hang on Lina!" Zelgadis yelled at her. The storm had picked up and had gotten worse. He tried to pull off the ice or something only when he touched her the cold sensation was too great and he had to pull back. "Lina I think I can free you." 

"Then do it!" 

"But the only way that I can think to do it is to cast a fireball on you, but that might affect your mind." 

"I'd rather have something slightly messed up with my mind then be dead!" 

Zelgadis complied and shot the fireball straight at her and oddly enough it got rid of the ice with no damage to Lina whatsoever. 

"Thanks!" 

Zelgadis would have said something in reply only his vision blurred and went dark and he collapsed. Lina tried to yell out to him but he disappeared and the dreamscape returned to a more stable form. 

~*~

Zelgadis awoke on Lina's bed with her snuggled up against him. She was still very cold and blue but not so much as she had been before. She was still sleeping but Zelgadis didn't return back to sleep. Ever since he had been through this weird situation he had not felt much. Now since his encounter with ex-demon part he could feel its presence. It was far from him at the moment, but alive and could return at any moment. Almost oblivious to the possible danger, Lina smiled, obviously having a nice dream. Zelgadis looked at her with worried eyes and put a defensive arm around Lina and waited for her to wake. 

~*~


	9. An Odd Feeling part 9

An Odd Feeling part 9 

An Odd Feeling

Part Nine

By Relm

~*~

_Zelgadis was walking through a dark void. He was shivering and he didn't know where he was. _

"Hello? Is anyone here?" The sound of Zelgadis' voice reminded him much of a small and frightened child. His voiced echoed throughout without stopping keeping on forever just getting softer till the sound couldn't be heard. "Where am I?" Zelgadis asked speaking louder but getting the same result. Wherever he was he was alone. The more Zelgadis spoke the colder it got. "How did I get here?" Zelgadis whispered to himself. His memory was totally gone, like as if there hadn't been any memories in his head from the start. But he knew that, that was wrong. He knew that something before this but it was all gone from him. His mind was as dark and bleak as his surroundings. "Anyone, please anyone, just answer me!" Zelgadis screamed out loud and collapsed to his knees. The coldness swept through him numbing every part of his body till he could feel no more. He couldn't even scream. 

* * *

Zelgadis woke up in a shock. He was back in Lina's room, on Lina's bed still holding her. "I was dreaming again. Why wont they stop?" 

"Are they really that bad?" Lina startled him. He had woken her up when he woke up from his nightmare so abruptly. 

"You can hear me?" 

"Yeah my guess for as long as I don't look at your face. Zelgadis are you alright?" 

"I'm fine now." 

"Good then this wont bother you too much." Lina said with a coy smile as she grabbed and ripped a chunk of his hair. 

"OWWWWWWWW! You should have warned me you were going to do that!" Zelgadis grumbled at her and she laughed. 

"Well you knew that I had to do it eventually so you should have been expecting it. Besides what difference would it make? It would still hurt the same." Lina grinned and Zelgadis muttered something under his breath that Lina couldn't make out. "Hey, Zel?" 

"Hmm?" 

"What happened last night? I know that you entered my dream but I can't remember what happened when you were there." Lina shuddered she was still feeling cold and she didn't know why. She wrapped the blankets closer around her and before she was aware of what she was doing she snuggled up closer to Zelgadis. When realization set in she wasn't cold anymore she was warm with embarrassment while blushing brightly. But Zelgadis didn't notice. He was stiff as a board thinking about what happened that night how Lina had almost been killed by something that used to be part of him. But he couldn't decide to tell her or not. 'He might not be able to do anything now and I could just kill him next time around. I don't need to worry her about things that wont matter right now. But what if he did come back and I wouldn't be able to stop him this time? Do I tell her or not?" 

"Um, Lina just forget about that it's nothing important." 

Lina frowned in suspicion. She could easily tell by the tone of his voice that it wasn't anything important. "You're lying Zel. Tell me what happened!" 

"You were almost killed but the person was stopped." 

"Who almost killed me? And how was I saved?" 

"A demon tried to kill you in your dream. And I stopped it." 

"So the demon is dead right?" 

"Um yeah right it's dead." 'That's not a total lie, it's almost like it's dead.' 

"Good then. Was that so hard? Anyway since it's so early in the morning and barely no one is up I'm going to take a nice long uninterrupted bath." Lina hopped her bed looked over to Zelgadis and was amazed, she could still him. "How come I can still see you?" 

"You can still see me?" Zelgadis looked at her with wide eyes. Lina on the other hand frowned. 

"Looks like I can still see you but I still can't hear you. As for touch-" Lina went over to him and moved her hand right through him. She felt the same sensation of ice and fire only it seemed a bit more solid in a way. "The sensation seems almost the same but something is a little different about it. Can you feel it too?" 

Zelgadis nodded. Lina looked down to the lock of Zelgadis' hair. It was soft and light lavender but most important it was solid and real. "Well I going to my bath now. See you downstairs later, oh and don't try and pull any funny stuff while I'm in the bath, because remember I can see you now. And I don't want any spirit like people peeping on me while I'm not wearing much clothes." Lina glared at him sternly but only half serious. While Zelgadis scowled. 

"You really think that I'd do something like that?!" Of course Lina still couldn't hear him. 

"Whatever Zelgadis I have no idea what you are saying nor do I care." Lina grabbed her stuff and skipped out of the room with that lock of Zel's hair in hand. 

~*~

Zelgadis sat in the inn restaurant still scowling. 

"How dare she imply that I'd do something like that?! Who does she think I am?! Xellos?!" Zelgadis yelled very loudly. One advantage to be walking around like a spirit you could yell as loud as you want and you'd have no one around you stare at you like you are nuts. 

~*~

Lina relaxed in the nearly hot water. She had been so tense lately that all her muscles were cramped up so the warm water was welcome. She sunk in further with her eyes closed and her face conveyed her happiness as she sighed dreamily. Zel's lock of hair that had been tied with a piece of string lay next to her on the ledge. 

~*~

The demon grumbled in a very unhappy manner. He couldn't believe that Zelgadis a mere human could have stopped him so easily in Lina's dream. It was if he wasn't even human or something. And he was even angrier at the fact that Zelgadis had managed to free Lina. "Well Zelgadis you think you had the last laugh? I said I would be back only this time I think instead of trying to kill Lina, I think I'll make it you can't become normal again!" He cackled while outside the woman's side to the public baths. 

~*~

Zelgadis who had been so preoccupied hadn't noticed his ex-demon part so close to where Lina was. But as it entered the bath Zelgadis felt a shock to his system as he was shot back to reality. "Oh no why wasn't I paying attention?! I've got to warn Lina!" 

~*~

Meanwhile Lina was unaware of the demon that also was in the bath. The demon went over Lina and was going to reach for the lock of hair when Lina opened her eyes. The first thing she did was scream out loud trying to through something at the demon. 

"What how can you see me?" 

"YOU PERVERTED DEMON! HOW DARE YOU PEEK ON ME WHILE- wait a demon?" Lina suddenly recognized the demon from the same on in her dream. 

"Well I don't know how you can see me but I'll kill you if I have to, because I'm going to get that lock of hair." 

"I don't think so!" Zelgadis appeared in and charged the demon with the same odd aura that he'd had in Lina's dream. Demon got struck but only slightly and disappeared returning back to where he had been before. 

"Lina are you all-" Zelgadis started to say as he turned to look at Lina. Of course he stopped and gaped when he noticed that Lina wasn't wearing anything. All thoughts flew from his head while his whole face turned a very deep red almost the same shade as blood that came out of his nosebleed. But before Lina could scream at him he disappeared and reappeared in Gourry's room. 

~*~


	10. An Odd Feeling part 10

An Odd Feeling

Part Ten

By Relm

~*~

Zelgadis was afraid to leave Gourry's room. Though Lina couldn't hurt him per say still he couldn't face her. Part was due to fear, the other was due to embarrassment. 'God what is she going to think of me now? I'm not a pervert.' He kept running through his thoughts pacing back and forth till eventually Gourry's snoring was too much for him and he had to leave. Zelgadis crept into the hallway carefully scanning the area only remember that whole zone out thing that had happened to him before? Well it happened to him again while he was standing in the hallway. It didn't last too long, just long enough for Lina to enter the hallway and creep up behind him. Zelgadis almost jumped when he saw Lina after he broke out of his little zoned out spell. 

"Lina I am very sorry! I didn't mean to do that! I was only trying to help you. Please forgive me!" Zelgadis was practically on his knees begging for forgiveness. A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that this wasn't something that he'd normally do but he told the voice to shut up because he couldn't remember anyway. 

Lina on the other hand just looked at his with a skeptical expression. She didn't know whether or not to forgive him or to hold a grudge. 'He was only trying to save my life it wasn't like he did it on purpose. Bu-but he saw me in the nude!' Lina wrestled with her thoughts. But then a thought dawned on her. He was already going through so much stuck in a spirit like body with his memory failing him a short time to live. He didn't need something else to add on to everything. 'Besides I could always fry him for it later. 

"Zelgadis don't bother. It doesn't matter. Let's just forget about it okay?" She gave him a little pat on the head with a forced smile. Zelgadis could easily tell that she was still annoyed if not peeved about the whole thing but he didn't pursue the matter. It's not like he could, he couldn't even talk to her. 

"Anyway let's go get something to eat! Hey wait a minute! You told me that, that demon in my dream was dead?! You lied to me!" She glared at him with fire burning in her eyes. So much for trying to go easy on Zelgadis. 

"He is sort of dead." Zelgadis said rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish expression. 

Lina just looked at him again skeptically. But she didn't say anything she just went to go get her breakfast. 

~*~

Oddly enough at the inn restaurant Lina ate way more then usual. But then due to Zelgadis' ex-demon part she didn't eat that much the night before. 

"Hey Zel I just thought of something. Why would that demon want to kill me or steal the lock of hair?" Lina said as she finished her meal. 

Zelgadis gave that a good thought. 'Now how would I go about telling her that?' But then he thought of an idea. He motioned for Lina to come back upstairs with him. They went back to his room and he motioned for her to sit at the desk with the pen and paper on it. Lina picked up the pen and put it to the paper while Zelgadis put his own hand over Lina's hand. It went through slightly and they both did feel the fire and ice sensations but Lina could also feel a little pull when Zelgadis guided her hand. He used his own hand to move hers to write. 

_He was a part of me_

"What do you mean? How could he be a part of you?" 

_When I was a chimera he was my demon part._

Lina looked at him in shock. "My guess is that, that was one of the reason's why you weren't really that willing to talk about the dream." 

_Yes._

"But why would he want to kill me or steal your lock of hair?" 

_When I was a chimera I was in control of everything. The golem part was nothing more then a part of a base with no mind to compete with. But the demon wasn't so docile. I got most of my power from him and I always kept its mind caged. I never let it have control. Because if I had, the demon would have killed many. It thirsts for bloodshed and destruction. And now that it's free it wants revenge. By hurting me and ruining whatever chance I might have of getting back to normal._

"Wow that's pretty harsh. Is there anyway to kill him?" 

_I don't know, but from what I can tell I'm the only one who can harm him. Though I don't understand how he is able to harm others. _

"I wonder if I'm the only other person besides you who can see him…" 

_You probably are. And you all are probably in grave danger. I'm so sorry this is all my fault._

"Now don't you start that! We all make mistakes there's no avoiding that. We'll just have to see through this. Don't worry I'm pretty sure that everything will turn out fine. Anyway let's go see if Mr. Hender is up." Lina bounced off and Zelgadis followed close behind. He didn't know if he should be worried or very relieved. He honestly couldn't remember if Lina was good in her judgment or just a wishful thinker. So many things were gone from his memory, and we couldn't get rid of this uneasy feeling. Having his memory leaving him bit by bit was scary. It was like parts of him were being taken away from him as minutes passed. But at least now Lina could see him. Even those things were getting worse there were still some bright sides. 

~*~

Popo was floating around the library very bored. Mr. Hender wasn't awake yet and Popo couldn't find anything to do. But Popo did go to see if Mr. Hender was awake by teleporting to his room. Much to Popo's annoyance he was still sleeping. Popo was going to do something to wake up the sleeping librarian until Popo heard some noises elsewhere in the building. Popo went to investigate and what he found was Lina and Zelgadis. 

"Hello Popo. Is Mr. Hender up yet?" 

Popo shook his head. 

"So Popo are you doing okay?" Zelgadis said with a smile patting Popo playfully on the um head. Popo responded with glee. He liked it when people gave him attention. 

"Wait a minute Popo you can see Zelgadis?" 

Popo nodded. And Zelgadis pointed to his ear. "Popo can hear you too?" Lina looked at him is disbelief. Zelgadis nodded. "Well anyway Popo can you get Mr. Hender up? We'll be downstairs in the lab portion. Okay?" 

Popo nodded and disappeared. 

"After you." Zelgadis said with hands motioning even though Lina couldn't hear him. Lina rolled her eyes and leaded the way to the lab. 

~*~

Mr. Hender on the other hand was fighting to keep his eyes open when Popo woke him up. The problem was that Mr. Hender didn't know exactly why Popo had woken him up. But he still got dressed and followed Popo to the downstairs lab. 

"Good morning Mr. Hender." 

"Well good morning Miss Lina. So that's why Popo woke me up. Tell me did you manage to get the hair sample?" 

"Right here." Lina held up the said lock of hair for Mr. Hender to see. 

"Alright if Mister Zelgadis' is in the room then we can get started. First of all I need Zelgadis to step into this machine." Mr. Hender pointed to some pod like thing that had tubes and various other things plugged into it. But one thing was for sure it didn't look comfortable. Zelgadis approached the pod with caution and got into is slowly. He looked over to Lina in confusion and Lina just shrugged. 

"Is he in there?" 

"Yup and he looks confused." 

"Alright then now to put in the DNA sample." Mr. Hender pulled a few levers and part of the machine opened up and he took the hair from out of the string and placed it in. Then he pulled a few more levers and pod door closed on Zelgadis leaving him in the dark. 


	11. An Odd Feeling part 11

An Odd Feeling

Part Eleven

By Relm

~*~

Zelgadis felt like he was floating in nothingness. He wasn't sure where he was anymore. He had remembered when he had first gone in, but after a few minutes, everything started to go. He could barely remember anything. His memory was rapidly deteriorating. Just a few memories, images and names were all that were left. 

~*~

Lina, Mr. Hender and Popo sat in the lab staring at the machine that was supposed to help Zelgadis. "Mr. Hender how long is it going to take?" 

"I'd say that it will take twenty-six hours." Mr. Hender avoided looking at her. When Mr. Hender started up the machine he found out by the readings that there was going to be problems creating this koppi and that it would take much longer to make then their estimated time. 

"Twenty-six hours?! You said it would only take a few!" 

"That's what I had initially thought until I started up the machine. From what I can tell Mister Zelgadis isn't entirely human originally." The read outs from the machine told him that much. He couldn't tell exactly what else was in Zelgadis' genetic make up besides human blood. 

"What? What do you mean by that?!" 

"I'm not sure what he is exactly. From what I can tell he is more then half human but whatever else is in his blood is affecting the rate at which the koppi can be created. You see when I had set this all up and made my calculations I had assumed that Mister Zelgadis was completely human. I had no idea that there was something else in his heritage. Did you know that he wasn't originally completely human?" 

"No. And when I saw him in the dream and walking around after the dream, he looked human. He had never told us that he wasn't anything but human originally, so chances are that he didn't even know himself. But why would him not being completely human change the time of the koppis creation so much?" Lina looked back to the pod that Zelgadis was in with a worried face. Lina knew from what Zelgadis had told her and from what she had seen in her dreams that Zelgadis didn't have that long. 'Will his mind be able to hold out that long?' 

"When making a koppi of anything there are different times for each races koppi creation period. Like making a koppi of a bug would take a significantly less amount of time compared to an elf. And since Mister Zelgadis is more then half human then the time it would be to make a human koppi should be relatively close to what it would take to make one of Mister Zelgadis. But for some weird reason that's not the case here. It seems whatever that small portion of his genetics that isn't human is dominating the time period. I can't even begin to guess on what it could be. I've never seen a case like this before." Usually the koppis that Mr. Hender had dealt with or studied about were usually koppis of pure blood. Meaning humans that were completely human with no other blood influences, pure blooded animals as well as other things. He had studied some cases were the subject being cloned wasn't fully human, but never had the creation time been altered that much. 

"But will Zelgadis be able to hold out that long?" 

"I hope so, but even I'm a little skeptical. But all he needs to be able to do is just remember one thing by the end. Like just a name and it will work." 

"But what happens if his memory gives out totally before the process is complete?" 

"Then the koppi that will come out of the machine will be dead." 

There was a silence among the three. 

"Mr. Hender can I ask you a question?" 

"Yes?" 

"What happened to Zel's demon and golem parts to his chimera body? What happened to them?" 

Mr. Hender sat there musing on that thought. "I assume that they disappeared. Why do you ask?" 

"I've seen Zelgadis' demon part, it tried to kill me and steal the lock of hair." 

"Oh my! Well then I guess that would mean that the three of them have been physically separated. And since a golem is nothing more then a man made creature made from the earth that is control by a person, when they were separated the golem with no human to control it would have returned back to earth like it was before. But how were you able to stop that demon? You shouldn't even had been able to see it let only touch it anyway." 

"I first saw it in my dream last night. I can't remember that much about the dream but Zelgadis filled me in on it. It had nearly killed me but Zelgadis had managed to stop it using his sword. Earlier this morning it attacked me and tried to get the lock of hair. As far as I can tell and from what I've been told, I can't harm the thing but Zelgadis is able to." Lina thought back to her encounter with that demon. She was still very peeved and wanted very much to blast it into nether realms. 

"So you can see it but not harm it, but Mister Zelgadis can harm it. I guess that goes with the whole situation Mister Zelgadis is in. Meaning you are probably the only one who can see that thing. But however was Mister Zelgadis able to stop the demon?" Theoretically humans could kill demons but to take one on and manage to win with a sword alone? That was nearly impossible because some demons were incredibly fast. Like the demon that was part of Zelgadis' form. Once Mr. Hender had seen Zelgadis he knew exactly what type of demon was part of Zel's chimera form. 

"I don't know it was kinda weird. He really shouldn't have been able to strike the demon but somehow he had this strange aura appear around him and both his strength and speed seem to increase out of no where." 

"Sounds like the mysterious other part of Mister Zelgadis' genetics. Hmm… it's very intriguing, but it's still a tad confusing. I wonder what Mister Zelgadis' non human part is?" 

~*~

The demon stat in his spot grumbling again. He was mad, very mad. He couldn't believe that Zelgadis had been able to stop him a second time. And the demon knew that Zelgadis shouldn't have that sort of power. Zelgadis had been born with no special speed, strength or magic abilities which was the reason Rezo had turned him into a chimera in the first place. 

"Rezo gave him my power because Zelgadis had none. So where is this strange power coming from?! And now he's going to be brought back. Well Zelgadis if you survive I'll just get you in your dreams when your guard is down. Of course I think I'll start off with that annoying little brat Lina Inverse instead. But not till after you are revived. Wont that be fun? You wont be able to stop me because most if not practically all your memory will be gone and you wont be able to hurt or see me nor protect her. But then Zelgadis this is all your fault anyway." The demon cackled darkly with his plans brewing in his mind. 

~*~

Zelgadis felt a strong sense of coldness in his floating state. It was such a shock because up until then he had been feeling nothing but warmness. Sure it had been dark, but it was warm. He felt free and he felt like nothing at the same time. It was both gratifying and making him feel uneasy. But when that coldness swept through he became tense and rigid even after the warmness returned. Something was going to happen, and it wasn't good. 


	12. An Odd Feeling part 12

An Odd Feeling

Part Twelve

By Relm

~*~

Zelgadis floated in his warm darkness. He was calm with most of his worries forgotten. Every now and then images would flash through his head, brief memories but they never lasted long enough for Zelgadis to make sense of them. Like he saw a dark lavender haired man with dark red garnet colored eyes standing over him. Man did say something, but Zelgadis was having trouble making it out. And Zelgadis was small very small as if he was the size of a baby. The man smiled at him only this one was a sad smile. He looked like he was regretting something that he was going to do. Then the man put his hand on Zel's head. A strange light surrounded Zelgadis making him feel weaker. And then the image fades away. 'Who was he? Should I have known him?' Zelgadis asked himself, but he couldn't come up with any answers. Suddenly Zelgadis felt very tired. Sleep tried to get it's large claws into Zelgadis but he tried to stay awake. Somehow he knew that he needed to stay awake and try to remember or something bad might happen but as the minutes poured on Zelgadis was having to remember that. 

~*~

Hours had passed since Zelgadis had been put into the machine. Lina paced around the room, while Popo floated around behind her equally as worried. Mr. Hender whom was up in the library section was trying to occupy himself by doing work, but he wasn't having much luck. He was having trouble trying to concentrate on anything besides what was going on down in his lab. 'What happens if something goes wrong? What happens if Mister Zelgadis doesn't make it? How can I face them knowing that I promised that I could help if he doesn't live?' Mr. Hender sighed in helplessness. There was nothing more that he could do now except wait. 

"Mister Hender are you there?" Amelia and the others came into the library looking for the librarian. 

"Uh, yes Miss Amelia I'm in here." 

"So who are things? Where's Miss Lina? Will Mister Zelgadis be alright?" Sylphiel, Amelia, Gourry and Xellos looked to Mr. Hender with hopeful eyes. Well maybe not Xellos, his eyes were closed. 

"Miss Lina is down in lab with Popo watching over the machine. As for Mister Zelgadis, well um there is a problem." Mr. Hender lowered his eyes away from the groups gazes. The four of them joined Mr. Hender at the large table that he was sitting at. 

"What's wrong?" 

"Well when I had made up my original calculations, I had assumed that Mister Zelgadis was completely human before he had been turned into a chimera. But that was in error to assume that." 

"What do you mean?" 

"When Mister Zelgadis was put into the machine with the hair sample the machine gave the read outs on how long it would take to make a suitable koppi of him. Only instead of it saying that it would take a few hours it instead told me that it would take around twenty-six hours." 

"What?!" Everyone looked at Mr. Hender with shock. "Why would that happen? Can he last that long?" Sylphiel worriedly looked towards the way over to the lab. 'Poor Mister Zelgadis and Miss Lina.' 

"To be honest I really don't know. It's been a few hours now so we have twenty-three or so left to go. But like I said I had assumed that Mister Zelgadis was completely human, but from my readouts I can now see that, that he isn't. He's more then half human, but there's an unknown part of his blood heritage that I wasn't aware that he had." Mister Hender sighed and took another sip of his coffee. 

Xellos frowned. 'Zelgadis not completely human? And how exactly is that possible?' Xellos many years ago had been sent to spy on the great Rezo the red priest by his master Zellas. At that time Rezo was insane and seeking a cure for his eyes, but he was also traveling two men and nine year old boy. Xellos knew that boy to be Rezo's great-grandson Zelgadis but that wasn't much of Xellos' concern. Zellas was only interested in Rezo but then at the same time there wasn't much to be concerned with, with Zelgadis. Xellos from his magic abilities could sense that Zelgadis was nothing more then a normal weak human. There wasn't any evidence physically for spiritually to prove otherwise. And there was no indication that Rezo or anyone else was hiding something. 'How could be not be completely human? No one could hide that from that well. And why would someone want to hide Zelgadis' not being fully human. No wait a better question would be who could hide Zelgadis' heritage?' "Do you have any idea what that other part could be?" 

"I can't even begin to guess. I have no idea what it could be. I don't know of anything that could alter a koppi creation period by so much. I just hope that Mister Zelgadis' mind can hold out that long." He fingered the rim on his mug with a frown on his face. 

"Is there anything we can do?" 

"Sit and wait for the machine finish creating the koppi of Mister Zelgadis." Mr. Hender under Lina's instructions didn't tell them about the demon running around amuck. 

_Flashback…   
  
"Miss Lina you aren't serious are you? Shouldn't we tell them about Mister Zelgadis' demon part out and on the loose?" Zelgadis had been in the machine for nearly a half an hour now. _

"What good would telling them about a enemy that they can't even see or touch? They'd just get paranoid and lose sleep over it and for nothing. Because they can't see it or hurt it, they wouldn't be able to do anything against it. What could they do?" Lina herself was worried about what might happen if the demon decided to attack again, but there wasn't much else she could do about it. So at this point she wasn't going to bother worrying about it and instead concentrating on the matter at hand. 

"I don't know… I still think that they should at least be warned about it…" 

"Believe me it's better that they don't know. And besides how do you think Zelgadis would feel if we were to tell them that they might have to fear their lives because an ex-part of Zelgadis might be trying to kill all of us? I don't know about but I'd feel pretty bad. And for all we know the demon part could be listening to everything we say so even if we warn them it might be a futile effort." 

"I guess so… Alright then Miss Lina I wont say anything." 

"Thank you Mr. Hender." 

End of Flashback   
  
It was against his better judgment but Mr. Hender kept his mouth shut. "Would anyone else care for some coffee?" 

~*~

Lina had stopped pacing and was sitting on the stairs. She was absentmindedly-petting Popo whom had fallen asleep in her lap. Lina wasn't even aware on what she was doing; she was so lost in her thoughts. 'What are we going to do if Zel comes out of this alright and he can't see or attack his ex-demon part? Then only I would be able to see the creature and I'd still wouldn't be able to anything.' Lina frowned. Things were a hell of a lot more complicated then what they had been just yesterday. 


	13. An Odd Feeling part 13

An Odd Feeling

Part Thirteen

By Relm

~*~

More hours had passed away with no sign that there was anything wrong with the koppi process. But the problem was that they wouldn't know that there was anything wrong until the machine finished and Zelgadis came out. Would he be alive? Or will he be dead? Those were the two questions that nagged at all of them. But no one had the answer. All they could do was wait and hope with their faith that Zelgadis was going to be okay. 

Since it wouldn't be till the next day that the machine would be finished, everyone went off to do their own things to keep their minds occupied and to waste time. Xellos disappeared into god knows where, Amelia went shopping with Sylphiel and Gourry in tow and both Lina and Mr. Hender stayed at the library. Mr. Hender was dealing with his normal business of running the library, and Lina was absentmindedly leafing through books in search of new spells or special information. But for a person who has done as much research and treasure hunting she wasn't finding much that she didn't already know. 'Come on there has to be something here that I can find that something new to me.' But still the more she looked the more of what she already knew lay before. Of course Lina was limited to the books of which languages that she could read. There was probably tones of new and useful things in some of the books in the library, only Lina didn't have the patience to try and learn a new language. 

"Miss Lina perhaps you'd might find reading some fiction might be a good way to pass the time." 

Lina sighed and picked up a book. She wasn't sure on what it was but she didn't really care. 

~*~

Amelia was buying things left right and center only no matter how much she bought she wasn't feeling any satisfaction from it. The same with Sylphiel. They weren't really enjoying themselves and they were very aware of the time passing. Another person who wasn't enjoying himself was Gourry because he was the one being forced to carry all the bought items purely because he doesn't know how to turn Sylphiel down. 

~*~

But back to Xellos. Now where did he go? Actually after hearing that Zelgadis wasn't completely human he wanted to do some investigating. So where was he? At Zelgadis' home, his real home. It took Xellos a little while to find it, but with direction he found where Zelgadis' was originally from. Because of Rezo's search for his cure, Zelgadis as a young kid had been dragged from one place to another. What Xellos was looking for was information about Zelgadis' father's side of the family. Basically the reason being is that what ever Zelgadis is, he's more then half human. Meaning whatever that other part of his heritage comes from, it comes from at least a generation back in Zelgadis' family. And since Xellos was damn certain that Rezo was nothing more then a pure human he was pretty sure that it wasn't from that side. The reason being was that the woman that Rezo married and had Zelgadis' grandmother with was a full human as well. What he suspicious about was Zelgadis' grandfather. The man came out of no where and married Rezo's daughter May. Xellos was certain that it was him where Zelgadis got this part of him that wasn't human. That unless it came from Zelgadis' mother's side. And if that was the case then Xellos wouldn't be able to find out anything. Xellos could find no information on Zelgadis' mother. Where she was from, what she did, not even a name. The women was a phantom, it was almost as if she never existed. 

Xellos stood at the graves of May and William Greywers. They had both died together without remains left to show of their bodies. But oddly enough Xellos was able to sense a body presence in May Greywers' grave. It was a dead body, but still there was a body in her grave. 

'Now what is this?' Xellos was puzzled. 'Who could have found her body and put it her without anyone knowing? And how was there able to be a body? With an explosion like that nothing should have been saved?' Of course Xellos was aware that the body laying the grave as in fact May Greywers. The explosion that the two of them died in was a magical induced one that was both destructive and poisonous. If the blast didn't kill you the fumes would instantaneously. 'And why would someone put her in her grave and not put him in his?' At this time Xellos wished that he had Fibrizo's powers. Trying to figure out stuff about the dead was very difficult. 

~*~

Zelgadis in his warm void was seeing images again. Only these were images of a man with dark lavender hair and garnet red eyes, these were just images of color. Red all around him. All he saw was red. And not just any shade of red but a specific shade of red. And it danced around his in mind like fire. 'Who is this? No what am I thinking? A color can't be a person. But then I also see blue. A man, why is that he seems familiar?' The image of blue fire replaced the red one until things regained their shape and came into focus. Zelgadis was laying on a bed. He felt tired, sore and heavy as he woke up. He couldn't remember what had happened before. All other things were gone. He got up and looked into the mirror. Zelgadis couldn't remember what he saw, but he did remember that he had been angry, shock and mortified when he had looked in the mirror that day. 'What was wrong with the way that I look that would get me to feel that way? What is wrong with me? What am I?' Suddenly Zelgadis in his void felt sharp pains all through his body like something was happening to him. 

~*~

It was well after lunch and Lina still was in the library. She had long given up on the books in the library to read. She was finding the fictional books in Mr. Hender's library not that entertaining. And Mr. Hender apologized for that. His library was more or less used for it's non-fictional content and had been used like that long before Mr. Hender's father's running of the library. So there hadn't been much effort put in to get good fictional books. In fact Lina had been reading this one that was so old and boring that she fell asleep while reading it. She was taking her little nap tucked away in the little corner that she had put herself to read in. Her dreams her haunted with various images. Doubts and fears that she had. Different scenarios played out in her dreams and in the waking world Lina's face was contorted into that of a frown and her body was curled up into a ball. 

Now if Popo or Mr. Hender had been aware of what Lina was doing then they probably would have woken her up. But since they were Lina continued on with her unpleasant dreams. But just because Popo and Mr. Hender weren't aware of Lina's slumber didn't mean that no one was. Oh no, there was a certain someone standing over her with a dark devilish smile. Zelgadis' ex-demon part decided that he was too hasting in his decision on not doing anything until Zelgadis gets out of he machine. 'Besides what if he doesn't make it or doesn't remember anything? I might as well have some fun while the opportunity knocks. Now let's see I can make her dreams worse then they already are…' The demon refrain from cackling. All he did was evilly smile at the slumbering sorceress. 


	14. An Odd Feeling part 14

An Odd Feeling

Part Fourteen

By Relm

~*~

Lina felt cold all of a sudden. Like everything around her was turning to ice. Only there wasn't ice, there was darkness. All she could see was darkness. But it was so cold and it was getting worse. And she was alone, all alone. She felt this strange emptiness as well. 

A dark voice cackled from all around her. 

"Who are you?! What is this place?!" 

That just caused the dark voice to cackle louder. The voice seemed familiar to Lina in a way only she couldn't remember from where. And that was another thing that was wrong. Lina was having trouble remembering anything. 

"Answer me!" 

_"What's wrong Lina? Don't you know who I am?"_

Lina stared blankly into the darkness and then her memory came back to her. "What do you want with me?!" 

_"Why to kill you of course…"_ And the dark voice cackled once more. 

~*~

Xellos like everyone else was completely unaware of the danger that Lina was in. He was still slogged around in Zelgadis' past trying to find answers. Since he was more or less determining that William Greywers was the source of Zelgadis' non human heritage, Xellos was now searching for information on Zelgadis' grandfather. The information that Xellos managed to find out was that William was a traveler that worked on trading ships. He was both a merchant and a mercenary. It was apparently when William was going to meet his dying mother that he met Rezo's daughter May. Only what Xellos found wasn't quite what he was expecting. At the grave of Helen Greywers, the mother of William Greywers he found in a grave next to her William Greywers body. And from what Xellos could figure out was that it was in fact William Greywers, and that there was a body in that grave. Because you see the William Greywers that was in the grave and the William Greywers that was Zelgadis' grandfather, were in fact two different people. William Greywers, the real one had died on his way to see his dying mother. He never got the chance to meet her. He had died in some accident on the way. But then if that who was it that met Helen? An imposter. One that Xellos didn't know the identity of and wouldn't be able to because of that explosion years back. 'This pretty much leaves me almost back where I started from. And for all I know the person posing as William Greywers could have been human himself. Which leaves me to check out information on the women that doesn't seem to exist. Well Zelgadis you sure have an odd family.' 

~*~

Zelgadis sneezed and wasn't sure why. He was still warm in his void. Things seemed to float away in Zelgadis' mind, but he didn't care. The images appearing in his head were less frequent now. And aside from those sharp pains he'd felt a few moments ago everything seemed fine. He didn't know if he should be worried about something, but he was feeling strangely tired. He was so close to falling asleep, but every time he was about a small voice in his head screamed at him not to do it. At first he would question the voice on why he couldn't go to sleep and at first the voice would give him a valid reason. But as time went on, the voice was getting fainter. And the reasons were getting harder to hear. Even though Zelgadis didn't want to listen to the quite voice in his head and go to sleep he still kept himself awake. But it was getting harder and harder as the time went on. He was the only thing that was keeping him awake. There was no one else to help him. And he didn't know where he was and he didn't care. But he was so sleepy. His eyes drooped feeling sleep finally take it's toll on him. But then all of a sudden those sharp pains he felt earlier came back, but this time far more worse. But it wasn't his pain that he feeling this time. It was someone else's. It was Lina's… 

For the first time since he had been put in this machine his memory was clear like it was before he went in. And knew what was going on. He could feel his ex-demon part inside Lina's dream. 

"Lina's in danger! And I can't do anything! She'll die if he isn't stopped soon or if she doesn't wake up! Wait a minute wake up? That's it! Oh please let you still be able to hear me!" 

And as loud as Zelgadis could yell he yelled, "POPO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" 

~*~

Popo was sleeping when he heard some weird sound coming some unknown place. He was slumbering down in the lab like before. What he heard was Zelgadis' voice. It woke him up even though the sound itself wasn't so loud. But the thing was that Popo wasn't really hearing the voice in his head. It was very faint but he knew who it was. 

_"Popo…can hear…Lina…danger…"_ That was all Popo could hear, only bits of it. But it was enough to know that there was something wrong with Lina. 

~*~

Lina was pinned up on an invisible wall in the darkness. What was she pinned up with? Long icicles that that had been impaled into her arms and legs. And slowly her blood was being turned into ice. 

_"How do you like the pain Lina?"_

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! Stop it! Or you'll be sorry." Lina hissed out in pain. 

_"Or what? I'm sorry to tell you this Lina, but no one can stop me!"_ The demon cackled away and to prove his point he jabbed her in the stomach. 

~*~

Popo floated over Lina's sleeping form. She was screaming silent screams and her face connived how much pain she was feeling in her dream. 

"PODOPODOPODOPODOPODOPODOPODO!!!!!!" Popo screamed into her ear. Lina woke up with a start. 

"Wha-what happened? Popo?" Lina looked at the blue floating ball creature. He started to cry waterfall tears while throwing himself at Lina in what would be a hug that is if he had arms and hands. Lina remembered what had happened. Her ears were still ringing but it's not like she was going to get angry at him. He was the reason she was still alive. 'Man what would that demon had done if Popo hadn't woken me up?' Lina shuddered at that thought. "Hey-hey! Popo you can stop crying now! I'm fine really." She tried to calm Popo and he did stop crying but then he looked Lina in the eye and started crying again. Lina raised an eyebrow at him and laughed. 

~*~

Zelgadis felt the pain disappear. 'Lina she's safe now… but how long till she's in danger again?' Then all of a sudden Zelgadis' mind muddled over like it was before… 


	15. An Odd Feeling part 15

An Odd Feeling

Part Fifteen

By Relm

~*~

Now Lina was alert and awake determine not to fall asleep again. 'But what am I going to do when I need to go to sleep? I don't think I can rely on Popo to wake me up again, and I don't even know that I will be attacked again. For all I know he could go after Amelia or Gourry or Sylphiel.' Lina's brow creased and she stared over to the machine that had what was left of Zelgadis in it. Since that whole incident with Zelgadis' ex-demon part, Lina decided it was best that she stay downstairs. Popo was with her also. He was determined himself not to let Lina out of his sight. Not that Lina minded much; it was kinda cute in a way. But Lina was also grateful towards the blue floating ball creature. If it weren't for him she would be dead. 'But how did Popo know to go wake me up?' "Popo how did you know that I was in danger?" 

"Podopapu peekkudopeen." Popo said. Lina just stared at him. Then it occurred to Popo that Lina couldn't understand what he just said. So instead he just motioned towards the machine. 

"Huh? What you mean Zelgadis told you?" 

Popo nodded. 

"And just how the hell did he manage to do something like that?!" 

Popo just looked overly frustrated, because he knew that there was no way he'd be able to explain it. 

"Oh well don't worry about it. Maybe I could ask Zelgadis how he did it, that is if he lives through this and still has his memory." Lina sighed and both of them looked over to the machine. Time would decide Zelgadis Greywers' fate. 

~*~

Now Zelgadis was seeing blue all around him. Yet somehow this was familiar, being surrounded by so much blue. And it changed too into silver and back into blue and then white and other colors. But this was a person he knew that. Who the person was, was the question that his memory couldn't answer. It was because of his failing memory that the person appeared as colors and not as a person. One thing that Zelgadis didn't have happen before when he saw these color people was that he heard sounds. A voice, a female voice singing a song that Zelgadis couldn't hear words to. It was only the melody with no words, and yet it was calming to Zelgadis. He felt better when he didn't even know that he was feeling bad. Then the singing stopped and the colors changed. It was now purple everywhere. And red, purple and red. Suddenly Zelgadis felt cold. Everything around him was cold. And chimes, he was hearing chimes. They sent chills down his spine. 'Why would chimes be a bad thing?' Then he went through the same scene again where he awoke in his bed, only everything was fuzzier then it had been the last time he had been through it. Again Zelgadis was left in confusion about what was so bad about his reflection in the mirror. There was something different this time; he felt a stab of loneliness. Everything seemed to just get worse, until he started to see red again. Only this was a different shade of red and for some reason he felt better. Just as these colors had appeared, they vanished and Zelgadis was left in darkness again. 

~*~

Though it seemed like an impossible task Xellos attempted to track down Zelgadis' mother. But the only information he could gather was that Zelgadis' mother was from outside the original barrier and had been outside there for her whole life. Xellos knew that that had to be wrong. The barrier had been destroyed only after Lina had killed Fibrizo. There was no way that Zelgadis' mother could have Zelgadis when the barrier was still up. In fact it should have been completely impossible. Yet every piece of information that he found pointed in that direction. 

'It's not possible, how could she be from outside the barrier? And how could she have Zelgadis and have him grow up on the other side?' 

This was confusing Xellos quite a bit. And what was worse was that he couldn't get any more information then what he already had because he didn't have a name to ask about. All he had was the name Mrs. Greywers and most of the time if he got anything he was told information about Helen Greywers and not Zelgadis' mother. 

Of course another logical thing that he could do was look up Zelgadis' father and get some information from him, only finding anything about him proved to be harder then finding out any information about his wife. First of all Xellos also couldn't get a name. What he did know was that Zel's father's first initial was 'K'. Besides that he knew nothing. 

"Maybe I should give up." Xellos finally declared to himself. 

"Give up what?" A voice asked from behind. Xellos whirled around to see a man with dark lavender hair and garnet red eyes. Then man was tall and by his pack and his sword you could tell that he was a traveling mercenary. 

"Oh I'm just searching for some information on some people. Have you heard anything about a Mrs. Greywers?" Though Xellos wasn't expecting much information from this guy, but he figured that there was no harm in asking. 

"I'm assume you are talking about living Mrs. Greywers and not the Helen Greywers whom who has been dead for quite sometime. Well from what I've heard that she stays in her homeland that is just outside where the barrier used to be and that she hides so well that sometimes her husband has trouble finding her. Only nowadays since the barrier has been destroyed she's doing some sight seeing. So even if you find her home chances are she wont be there." 

Xellos just gaped. That was not the answer that he was expecting. In fact he didn't say anything to the man. "Um yes I guess so. Ah do you know anything about a K Greywers?" 

"Hmm… K Greywers? Well the only thing I've heard about him is that he hates his grandfather Rezo the Red Priest with a passion." 

"You mean he did hate him." 

"How so?" 

"Well Rezo the Red Priest died a few years ago." 

"He did?" 

"Yes." 

"Thank you. You've been most helpful." The stranger said with a smile and walked off behind Xellos. Xellos went to turn around to ask the stranger what he meant only when Xellos looked the stranger had disappeared. 

'Now how did he do that?' Xellos mused with a smile and shock his head. 

~*~

Mr. Hender was in his library researching something. He was trying to find information on chimeras and what happens if different parts are separated. Basically Mr. Hender was concerned about what Lina had told him about Zelgadis' ex-demon part. Only though she hadn't told him about the latest incident, but perhaps it's better that she didn't. Basically Mr. Hender was trying to find a way to stop, trap or kill the demon part, but everything that he found lead to nothing. 'But then isn't a normal case anyway now is it? I doubt any of the people from the band that made that spell that caused all this mess even had something like this happen. If only I had looked at the book more closely then maybe this wouldn't have happened.' Until Zelgadis came out of this situation alive and cured and the ex-demon part was contained or dead then Mr. Hender would blame himself for what was going on. Though he wasn't his fault at all. There was one problem to researching on trying to kill an invisible beast, the beast could be reading over your shoulder and you wouldn't even know it. So that's why the ex-demon part was smiling his evil smile. He had found it's next victim. 


	16. An Odd Feeling part 16

An Odd Feeling

Part Sixteen

By Relm

~*~

Zelgadis' ex-demon part stared down at Mr. Hender with amusement. The demon didn't quite like the fact that the librarian was plotting to try and destroy/trap him. But he thought it was amusing due to the fact that it was trivial and pointless. 'Especially since you aren't even going to get a chance to even try anything on me.' The demon smiled. Yes he had chosen Mr. Hender as his next victim, but was he going to kill him? That is a secret… 

Now Zelgadis would have sensed something wrong and that his ex-demon part was up to something, only that wasn't the case here. Zelgadis' mind had forgone so much that he was no longer even slightly aware of anything that happened outside his little dark void. He had to many things to entertain him there. Zelgadis still didn't know the meaning of the color people, but at this point he no longer even thought about it. He didn't care there was nothing that mattered to him right now. Only he still knew that he couldn't fall asleep. The voice in the back of his head that told him not to fall asleep had long since silenced, but Zelgadis still knew that he must stay awake. He had nothing to rationalize on why he must stay awake, but he still couldn't ignore the gut feeling he had in his stomach. 

~*~

Xellos had two options in front of him. Continue with the search for information on Zelgadis' family history, or go back and see how the others are doing. The problem with continuing his search was that he was practically at a dead end. All that time that he spent was practically a waste, he had figured out much. All that Xellos had done was confirm what he had already suspected. But then there was that scene with the man who had told Xellos information about Zelgadis' mother. Xellos was suspicious of that man and after his little disappearing act, Xellos decided to see if he could track him down. Only after the dark red-eyed stranger had vanished Xellos was unable to even find the slightest clue on where the stranger could have headed. So really Xellos had nothing more to do there. 

On the other hand he could back and wait with the rest of them. Only that would be on the boring side for Xellos and he wanted to return with secret knowledge of Zelgadis' family heritage to gloat in their faces. Going back not accomplishing anything, made Xellos feel a bit empty. 'This was practically a waste of time, but I guess considering that I have nothing else to do I should go back anyway. Perhaps I can amuse myself by irritating them a bit.' Xellos smiled. Maybe he didn't really have any solid information on Zelgadis' non-human heritage but who says that he couldn't pretend that he does? 

~*~

The first place Xellos decided to go and see was the little justice loving Sailune Princess. And like Xellos figured she was sitting her room a bit depressed. Xellos phased in right above her. Amelia wasn't even aware that Xellos had entered her room. She was sitting on her bed not thinking much and she flopped down on her bed lying down with her eyes closed. She lazily opened her eyes to see Xellos right above her head. Amelia's initial reaction? She screamed at the top of her lungs and started throwing random magic spells like flare arrows and fireballs. 

Gourry and Sylphiel who had heard Amelia scream came rushing into her room. 

"Amelia what's wrong?!" Gourry said with concern with his sword already unsheathed. Xellos who was still floating in the air was laughing his head off. 

"Oh don't worry about her. Little Amelia just needs to switch to decaffeinated coffee." Xellos said with another laugh and Amelia threw a pillow at him. 

"How dare you scare me like that! Appearing in my room out of no where! That was a really mean and unjust thing to do!" Amelia fumed and pouted. 

Xellos floated over to her and gave he a pat on the head. "There, there Amelia. If it's any consolation, I got a good snack out of your emotions." Xellos laughed again and Amelia emitted a nice large burning battle aura of anger around her. Her eye was twitching and fists clenched. She glared a deathly glare at the annoying trickster priest whom was too busy laughing to notice what was about to happen. Sylphiel and Gourry knew this was there cue to get the hell out of the room. 

~*~

Outside the inn from a far distance even outside of town a loud sound cracked through the air as a certain battered up monster was sent flying through the air on a collision course with a large mountain face. 

~*~

Lina looked up wondering what the hell was the sound. Popo was confused too. But they both figured that they were better off not knowing. 

~*~

Xellos removed himself from the rock face in quite a considerable amount of pain. "Well what do you know, little Amelia knowing a spell to make a monster feel pain like a mortal…" Xellos smiled despite the pain. Amelia had casted the very spell that Xellos just mentioned and then she used a modified fireball spell to batter him and send him flying. "Maybe I should ease on irritating her for a little while, or at least keep my guard up. Though I have to say she's becoming more like Miss Lina everyday." Xellos smiled at that thought while his body healed up to normal. Though the spell that Amelia had casted had been effective it wasn't going to last forever. 

He dusted himself off. He decided that Lina would he the next person to bother. 'I guess I could use that information baiting on Zelgadis' non-human heritage on her.' Xellos smiled and phased into the library. Or so that's where he thought he was phasing into. Only instead of the library he ended up a dark and cold void of nothingness. 

"Where am I?" Xellos said in wonder. He tried to float around to get a better look only he wasn't able. He panicked. 'I don't care about exploring right now I'm leaving.' And Xellos tried to phase out back into the town somewhere only to find himself still in the black void of nothingness. Now Xellos was scared. He couldn't float or teleport out, but could he still use his magic? Xellos tried to use dark flare and nothing happened. His magic was gone and all of his abilities were gone too. Suddenly Xellos felt claustrophobic. He tried to run someplace hoping that the void would end but he was repelled backwards by some invisible force. 

~*~

Lina and Popo went upstairs to see if there was anything new had happened. Lina wasn't surprised to see Amelia sitting in the library. Only she was surprised to see Amelia very angry. 

"Hey Amelia what's wrong?" 

"I'm so mad at Mister Xellos! He made a fool of me and all he did was laugh at me! He didn't even apologize!" Amelia fumed. 

"So I take it that that sound earlier was due to something you did to Xellos?" Lina asked with a raised eyebrow. 

"Yes." 

"I don't think he'll be showing his face anytime soon, Miss Amelia so I don't think you need to worry about that." Mr. Hender said with a smile. Amelia smiled back at him and she went with Lina and Popo back down to the lab. With them gone Mr. Hender's smile turned evil and his eyes glowed a dark blood red. 


	17. An Odd Feeling part 17

An Odd Feeling

Part Seventeen

By Relm

~*~

Mr. Hender shook his head feeling a bit dizzy. 'What happened? How did I end up in here? Wasn't I in the other wing of the library?' Mr. Hender rubbed his head a bit. His head hurt and he was bit confused on where he was. Last thing he remembered he was in the west wing of the library looking up information on trying to deal with Zelgadis' ex-demon part. Now he was in the north wing of the library not knowing how he had gotten there. What he wasn't aware of the red-eyed demon standing behind him smiling. 

"You served my purpose nicely." Zelgadis' ex-demon part cackled holding what seemed to be a dark blue crystal. "Now I don't have to worry about that bothersome Trickster Priest. But for now I will not need your service until after little Zelgadis gets out of his little machine." He cackled again even though he knew that Mr. Hender wasn't aware in the least bit of his presence. Though he looked at the little blue crystal with an evil smile. 

~*~

Xellos sat on the floor of his place of captivity. He was shaking and shuddering while staring blindly at the ground. He had been stuck in the dark nothingness for two hours now and he was losing it. He was going crazy and he felt extremely claustrophobic. For a monster it was almost impossible to be trapped anywhere. Just a quick teleportation and they could be anywhere they wanted. But can you imagine? A person who's never really been trapped anywhere before and suddenly trapped not only in an area that they can't escape but one that they have no idea where and how they got there. So needless to say Xellos wasn't in his best frames of mind. He wasn't aware on where he was, how he got there or how his captor was smiling down at Xellos in his prison. 

~*~

Zelgadis' ex-demon part resisted the urge to go down and check on his former human counterpart. But he knew that down in the lab Lina, Popo and Amelia where down there. Though he didn't give a damn about Popo and Amelia it was Lina that would be a problem to him. To his knowledge Lina was the only other person that could see him. And even though Lina may or may not be able to do anything to him he'd rather not take any chances. But Lina was going to be a problem to him. 'If that meddling blue thing hadn't woken her up I'd have Lina Inverse dead by now.' Zel's ex-part mentally growled. He wanted carnage and blood but most of all he wanted Zelgadis to suffer. Zelgadis was the reason he lost his freedom. 

~*~

Years ago a demon by the name of Gar had been terrorizing a small town near the country side. Gar was a heartless creature that only cared about death, destruction and himself. He was a rather intelligent creature even if he was evil. But then one day a man found Gar's secret dwelling. A blind man with purple hair. Gar thought nothing of it, the man was blind after all so he shouldn't have any trouble killing it. Or so he had thought. But when Gar tried to attack the blind man he found himself bruised, beaten and unconscious. Gar found out later when he awoke in a cage far from his home that the blind man was Rezo the Red Priest and was quite a strong mage. 

Gar had no idea what this Rezo wanted with him but one thing he did know was that he was being kept in this prison and wasn't going to be released any time soon. Gar grew to despise the priest but then he didn't like anyone. Like he didn't like Rezo's great-grandson Zelgadis. Zelgadis to Gar was nothing more then a weakling human that's no better then cattle for food. But then Gar found out what Rezo really wanted with him when Rezo conquered up a golem. Gar whom had been accustomed to a life of freedom and carnage found himself trapped as part of a chimera body. Rezo made Gar, Zelgadis and the conquered up golem into one person. Now this wouldn't have been so bad if Gar was the base and had the dominant personality. Only Rezo who was still smart despite his insanity made sure that is was Zelgadis that was the one that controlled them. It made Gar so angry, because Zelgadis freely used Gar's power without letting him have a say in anything. He had no control over anything that their body did. Gar was in a way kept locked up tight in a cage that he couldn't escape while being used. Gar only got control a few times but that was only when Rezo triggered it. And even then Rezo had control over Gar so it was still like he was trapped. Gar and Zelgadis only had one thing in common, they both despised Rezo with a passion. But after Rezo's death Zelgadis became the target of Gar's hatred. He wanted control of the three, to put Zelgadis in his place, but that was impossible. So the next best thing that Gar settled for was taunting Zelgadis in the mind. Making him think that he was a monster, a freak anything that would bother him. 

~*~

But that was the past, now he was free of Zelgadis and the golem. But still Gar, Zelgadis ex-demon part was not happy. He wasn't in a live body, and he still hadn't got his revenge yet. But after possessing Mr. Hender, Gar thought of something that might be more satisfying then just normal revenge. He evilly smiled and went off to see what Gourry and Sylphiel were doing. 

~*~

Mr. Hender back in the west wing of the library was back to researching on ways to deal with Zelgadis' ex-demon part. But like before he wasn't getting anywhere. Though when he went back to the books he did faintly recall before that he had left the west wing and said something to Lina. Only it was a bit hazy in his mind. He would have thought more of it but he blamed it on lack of sleep and how tired he was and how much he's overworked himself. 

"I guess at my age it's not common for people like me to go senile." Mr. Hender laughed to himself sarcastically. 

Mr. Hender kept looking back at the clock. 'A few more hours…' He was anxious about the time when the machine will be done with Zelgadis. He was afraid that Zelgadis might not live through it and he was very afraid that the demon might do something. 'How are we so supposed to deal with something we can't even attack? For all I know Mister Zelgadis might not even be able to see his ex-demon part if he comes out of the machine alive. And that would make Miss Lina the only one. And how would we go about stopping the creature if it decides to do something? The only reason Mister Zelgadis was able to stop the demon was because he was in that spirit like form too? But would he be able to do anything against the demon even if he's cured? And what if he can't even remember anything when he gets out? This is all to stressful. I just hope that that demon hasn't already done anything bad to anyone yet.' 

~*~

Sylphiel and Gourry were sitting at the restaurant drinking tea. Basically they were catching up a bit on what both of them had been doing in the past while. Though Sylphiel was able to tell him many things Gourry wasn't able to say much about himself. Problem being was that he couldn't really able to remember all the things he had been doing. But she didn't care, she just liked have Gourry around. 

"So what do you want to do now Gourry-dear?" 

"I don't know I guess I'll go look for Xellos. Amelia shot him pretty far. What about you?" 

"I don't know I was thinking that I'd go to my room and do some reading. I guess I'll see you later then?" 

"Sure Sylphiel bye." 

"Bye." 

And Gourry walked off while Sylphiel gathered up her stuff and headed towards her room. Gar watched the scene with interest. 'Now which one do I play with first?' He smiled another one of his evil smiles. 


	18. An Odd Feeling part 18

An Odd Feeling

Part Eighteen

By Relm

~*~

Gar had to choose which of the two he was going to 'play' with first. 'Sylphiel is going to be probably sitting up in her room reading and it's not like she'd be hard to deal with anyway. But Gourry on the other hand might be of some use to me. And besides it might not be good for me if Gourry gets suspicious about Xellos, if that even has a chance of happening.' Gar left and went to tail Gourry. 

~*~

Xellos walked around the perimeter of his dark jail. If he even as so much touched the force that kept him where he was, he would be thrown backwards like he had rammed into it or something. So he couldn't go far in any direction. And everything looked the same to him as if the whole place was infinite with no end. The calming thing that Xellos felt was that his eyes had adjusted and he now saw that the place was not pitch black like he had previously thought instead it was a very dark and deep blue. But that still didn't help matters. He was still trapped and he still didn't know who trapped him, where he was or how to get out. 

~*~

Lina stared at the clock. It was starting to get close to when the machine would be finished. 'Less then 24 hours…' She was getting anxious. She along with everyone else was worried that Zelgadis might not even come out of this alive. But that wasn't the worse of it. Lina kept thinking about Zelgadis' ex-demon part. 'What the hell am I going to do? I can't do anything against something that I can even touch. And even if I could what could I do?' She grumbled in her thoughts. 'Of all the bad timing. Why does 'that' have to happen now?' Lina was annoyed, because unfortunately for her it was that time of the month. 

Amelia who was blissfully unaware of any of the dangers at hand was still bursting with anger at Xellos. She was glaring at the ground with a scowled expression while Popo was trying his best to lighten her mood. 

~*~

Zelgadis drifted in and out of conscious thought. He so desperately wanted to give into sleep but he still kept awake. No voices of images remained all Zelgadis had left were words in his mind. Random words that didn't make any sense to him. 

~*~

Gar followed Gourry but as Gar noticed Gourry had more things on his mind other then looking for Xellos. Gourry kept stopping at all the bakeries and food stands that he saw. Basically a trip that should have only taken no more then 20 minutes turned into one of almost an hour and they were only half way there. 

Gar kept wondering if he should continuing following Gourry till he got to were Xellos had been or just not bother because Gourry would probably forget about it anyway. Of course it would have made more sense if Gar possessed Gourry now and just use him for his purposes. But the problem was that when Gar possessed someone it kinda made a little show with light and energy. So if he was to do it right in the middle of the street the townspeople would see it. So Gar needed to at least wait until Gourry was somewhat far away from any public. Even though Gar was still not sure if he wanted to bother with this still followed Gourry anyway. Because there was something Gar needed from Gourry. 

Gourry on the other hand was actually starting to forget where he was heading. It took most of his power just to keep is destination in his head. But there was so many places he could eat in this town that he was getting far too distracted. 'If I keep this up I wont be able to eat dessert after dinner tonight.' Gourry thought with a smile. Then it hit him, Sylphiel said that she was going to make him a special dessert for him. There was no way he was going to waste his appetite and ruin that opportunity. So with that Gourry finished off what he was eating and got up and marched right over to where Xellos' flying body had been thrown. 

Gar looked Gourry with a bit of shock when he noticed Gourry was not sitting down at a table eating but walking almost three blocks ahead of him. Gar had been distracted looking at magic stand because he didn't think that Gourry would speed off so suddenly. "Now what's gotten into him? This isn't like Gourry." Gar mused out loud as he went to catch up to him. He figured that since he was in this form he had nothing to worry about because no one could see or hear him. But he was wrong a dark outline of someone in a dark alleyway was watching Gar. 

~*~

If Xellos had some stones he'd be throwing them at the barrier as he sat there on the ground. He absentmindedly stared at the ground. He'd given up trying to figure a way out of his prison a while ago. And Xellos had even resorted to something that he'd never do, he tried calling for help. Now not saying that he was yelling out 'help me' or anything hoping someone would hear, though he was started to get that desperate. Instead he tried to contact other monsters via telepathically, but either everyone was ignoring him or being in this prevented him to contact someone through the mind. Xellos was sure that he was being prevented from contacting them. Because even though some of the monsters may have been ignoring him there were some who wouldn't. So what was left of him to do? 

"HELP!!!! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME?!?!?!" 

~*~

Gar rolled his eyes at the dark blue crystal. 'I was expecting the monster priest to eventually resort to yelling out foolishly for help but not this soon. Heh heh.. how… amusing.' Oh how Gar wanted to take the crystal and smash it along with Xellos. 'It would be so nice great of him right now but I need to use him for later. Hmm… I wonder if Xellos is even aware of what he's trapped in.' Gar evilly smiled and put the crystal back in his pocket and returned his attentions back to Gourry. Gourry was almost at the town edge, it wouldn't be long know before Gourry was going to reach where Xellos had been shot to. 

Gourry passed the town limits and walked towards the crash site. What he found was a bit of blood but nothing more. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. "Now where did Xellos go?" Gourry mused right before everything went black. 

Minutes later Gourry was seen walking back in town. Only he didn't have his regular clueless expression and he also ignored the all the people who said things to him. 'Gourry' just continued walking till he got near to the inn he was staying at. Gar smiled evilly through Gourry's body. 'Having control of him is a lot of more fun then controlling that old man Hender. But there is one thing that I hate though. I've got this annoying feeling of immense hunger. No wonder he eats so much. Now to get down to business.' Gourry or Gar looked down at the sword of light hanging from his hip. Gar didn't know if the sword of light would harm him or anything but he didn't want to take any chances. Gar went to a swords and weapons shop and looked for a sword very similar to Gourry's and bought it. And then he went to a place where he thought no one could see him and with his power he opened a small dimensional pocket. What he did with the dimensional pocket was put the sword of light in and sealed the dimensional opening. And with the new sword Gar replaced the real sword of light. 'Even if Gourry figures out that his sword of light is gone he wont be able to remember what happened.' Gar smiled and went towards a restaurant and ordered a large amount of food. Just as the food came he started to eat, Gar let go of his control of Gourry and left his body to go do things elsewhere. Gourry blinked a couple of times not really being able to remember what had just happened to him. But Gourry being Gourry just shock it off and continued eating the food in front of him. 

~*~

Gar continued his way back to the inn everyone was staying at. His next target was the shrine maiden. Like Gar had suspected Sylphiel was up in her room all by herself still reading. 'Perfect no will see me either.' 

Sylphiel was reading a book about some of the elder legends of Siaraag when she felt her eyes get heavy and droopy. 'Am I really that tired?' She didn't get to think about it any further because she fell into a deep sleep. 

Gar stood up in the shrine maiden's body. Gar noticed the big difference between Gourry and Sylphiel's body. In Gourry's Gar felt a strong sense of physical strength but at the same time he felt disoriented and hungry. In Sylphiel's he felt magical power that Gourry lacked but in Sylphiel's body he felt physically weaker. But if he had to choose which one he preferred, he'd say Sylphiel for many reasons. 

The next problem that Gar had was trying to get back into the library without being noticed by anyone. But with Gar's abilities and Sylphiel's magic power Gar was able to conjure up a nice vanishing spell. 

He waited until he knew there was no one in the hallway before he left Sylphiel room. No even noticed that sometimes there was doors being opened and closed with no visible person going through. Gar did have a few close calls. He actually bumped into someone. The person he bumped into shrugged it off when the person couldn't see the person did it. But Gar managed to make it over to the library without too much trouble. Once inside Gar in Sylphiel's body headed as close as he could to the downstairs lab without being seen. 'Okay now to take care of the justice freak.' Gar using Sylphiel's magic powers and his abilities casted a spell on Amelia despite the fact that they were in different rooms. Gar had to be very careful with this spell not to alert Lina or Amelia of it. Basically the effects of the spell would affect Amelia's magic casting abilities and make her unable to cast anything past a light spell. Much like it was her time of the one. As for Lina, well he would have casted a similar spell on her only if he had then she would have definitely noticed. 'I'll just have to think of a different way to deal with you my dear little Lina.' Gar narrowed his eyes and went back to the inn. 

~*~

Lina, Popo and Amelia had been totally unaware of Gar's presence not too far away from them. Neither did any of them noticed the spell that Gar had casted. Amelia did feel a slight tingling sensation but she was still too annoyed with Xellos that she didn't even notice. 

~*~

Gourry walked around town a bit confused. 'Now how did I get here in the first place? Wasn't I heading towards where Xellos was? And wasn't I over there?' Gourry's confusion was evidently displayed in his face. "Oh well maybe I should head back to the inn and see what Sylphiel is up to." Gourry turned around to head back to the inn just as he bumped right into someone. "Oh I'm so sorry…" Gourry's voice trailed off because he saw no one there. 'That's weird who did I bump into?' 

~*~

Gar rushed back into the inn and into Sylphiel's room. 'That bubblehead blond swordsmen is coming here soon!' Gar scowled as he let down the vanishing the spell. He then sat in the position that Sylphiel had been sitting in when Gar put her sleep. And with another spell Gar made Sylphiel's mind muddled and put her back to sleep. Gar out of Sylphiel's body left. 

Moments later Sylphiel woke up to the sound of someone knocking on her door. 

"Uh… Who is it?" Sylphiel called out in her confusion. 'I just had the strangest dream. Only how come I can't remember it that well? And how did I fall sleep?' 

"It's me Sylphiel. Can I come in?" 

"Yes off course Gourry-dear." Sylphiel straightened herself as Gourry came in. He looked at her with a bit of concern. 

"Hey Sylphiel is something wrong?" 

"No I'm just a little confused about something that's all. Did you find out what happened to Xellos?" 

"No. Probably out somewhere bugging someone." Gourry smiled and sat down on a chair. 

~*~

Xellos was now curled in a little ball mutter incoherent stuff under his breath. He had finally given up all together on the hope of getting out. He had been there screaming for hours only he wasn't aware that no one was able to hear him except Gar. Well Gar thought he was the only one who was aware of Xellos. But even that was wrong. 

_Do you want to get out of here?_

Xellos sprang up and looked around all confused. "Whose there? And where are you?" Xellos' voice was shaky and small despite of how confident he was trying to make it. 

_I am far from where you are. As for who I am that is not important. So I ask again do you want to get out of here._

"… And what if I do?" 

_Then I could get you out of this place…_

"What's the price?" 

_You'll have to do something for me in return. Do we have a deal?_

"… Fine we do. When can you get me out of here?" 

_In a matter a of time. You'll just have to be patient._

"How long?" Xellos asked but there was no one to answer him. The mysterious voice had left. 

~*~

The person hiding in the shadow whom had been watching Gar smiled after his little talk with Xellos the Trickster Priest. "Gar you aren't the only one who wants revenge." And the person's smile turned twisted. 


	19. An Odd Feeling part 19

An Odd Feeling

Part Nineteen

By Relm

~*~

Xellos sat in his dark blue prison wondering if his so called savior had forsaken him. It had been two hours since that mysterious voice had spoke to Xellos promising freedom. He had been positive about getting out for a full hour, but now he worse off then before he had promised freedom. 

Basically he concluded that the person who had spoken to him was in fact the very person who had trapped into his blue prison and was trying to torment him with false freedom. He had very little doubts that it wasn't the case. Because if he was in his captors position he'd definitely take the time to torment his prisoners. Hopelessness was always more of the more tastier emotions to snack on. 

Even though he was certain that was someone was just torturing him, there was still a small part of him that still had hope that maybe he was going to get freed. 'How ironic a creature such as I holding on to a pathetic little emotion such as hope. A weak human emotion.' Xellos laughed darkly and collapsed on the ground in a heap. 

~*~

Considering what time it was Lina, Amelia, Sylphiel and Gourry had left the library to go and have dinner. Amelia though not exactly angry at Xellos for what he had done earlier was now very annoyed with him due to the fact that he hadn't shown his face since then. According to Amelia, Xellos was being cowardly and pulling his same old tricks. 'Probably wont even show his face again until after Mister Zelgadis is done in the machine.' 

They all sat down at their table with their food ordered. Everyone made conversation with everyone else as they sat there waiting for their food. But no one really noticed how preoccupied Lina was. She was in deep thought and not really paying much attention to what was going on around her. The only thing that was on her mind at that moment was Zelgadis' ex-demon part. Ever since Lina had found out about this little problem all she had been thinking about was what was she going to do? But no matter how hard she thought about it she just couldn't think of a solution to deal with this problem. She did have hopes that Zelgadis might be able to do something once he was out of the machine. Of course there was always the possibility that Zel might not be able to do anything in his newly acquired cured form. The worse was though that he might even be able to live through it though Lina nor anyone else wanted to think about that possibility. Though Lina was aware that Mr. Hender was researching on a way to stop Zelgadis' ex-demon part but she didn't have much faith in him finding a solution. 

"Miss Lina! Miss Lina!" 

Lina snapped herself back into reality and saw that the Gourry, Amelia and Sylphiel were staring at her. 

"Oh what?" 

"The food, it's here!" Amelia motioned to the now full table of food. The luscious spread looked highly appetizing. 

Amelia and Gourry dived right in while Sylphiel got her bird like proportions. Lina suffering from both a headache due to thinking too hard and stomach cramps do to another reason wasn't as hungry as she usually was. But she still ate anyway, keeping a very watchful eye on her surroundings. 

~*~

Lina didn't need to worry too much because Gar wasn't up to anything at the moment. He felt pretty powerful at that moment. Though he had no real physical body he felt like he was invincible and that no one could stop him with his plans. In reality Gar wasn't as invincible as he thought himself to be. Thinking that no one could see him Gar walked about freely without even knowing that his every move was being watched. 

Another thing that Gar wasn't aware of was how little time he had left. Like Zelgadis if he stayed in this ghostly form for too long without a memory to hold his conscious together then he would cease to be. Only unlike Zelgadis, Gar could last a lot longer. His memory hadn't even begun to waver and all his memories lay entwined with hatred and vengeance. As long as he kept his anger towards Zelgadis strong his memory wouldn't go on him as fast. But all this didn't matter too much for what Gar had planned. He darkly smiled knowing that he would be able to get true revenge in the end. 

Gar pulled out the dark blue crystal that had the trickster priest encased in. He threw it up into the air almost not bothering to catch it before it hit the ground. Gar was very aware that if the crystal fell to the ground and shattered that the life force of the monster trapped within would be destroyed as well. But still he juggled around with the crystal throwing it way to high or way to fast. Almost as if not really caring if he accidentally killed Xellos along in the process. Well he didn't really care if he killed Xellos. The only thing that was really stopping Gar was the possible use that Xellos could have to him later. In truth Gar hated Xellos with quite a passion. That's what happens when you share a body with another mind, you both end up having similar hatred to people. 

"Poor Xellos, doesn't even know exactly how much danger he's in. Doesn't know that just a slip of the hand and his life would be over." Gar laughed evilly sounding much like a madman. 

~*~

From a spot not too far off from Gar but out of his view the same creature that had been watching Gar all this time shook his head. 

'Still as foolish and ignorant as always Gar?' The creature darkly smiled. It knew very well of it's own limitations and that it was pointless to think of yourself as untouchable and all powerful. It didn't think of itself as being unstoppable and it also didn't think that any of its plans could go wrong. But Gar was foolish perhaps the only real difference between the two. But one thing was for sure it was going to meddle in every one of Gar's plans as possible. 

It walked swiftly from shadow to shadow trying to keep itself as hidden as possible. It didn't care that Gar was the only one close that could even have a chance at seeing it, it wasn't going to take any chances. Eventually the creature reached an area of the town where Gar had opened a dimension pocket. It re-opened the pocket and fished out what Gar had stored away in there. The sword of light. 'Gar still on his power kick probably won't think to check on the sword. So he'll have no idea that it's even gone.' The creature grinned mischievously. Normally it couldn't open a dimension pocket of any kind big or small. But because Gar had opened this one originally that it was able to re-open it. 

~*~

Xellos was asleep laying on the ground of his dark blue prison. Monsters don't sleep, on a regular basis. So why was Xellos sleeping? One could say that he was doing it out of boredom but the real reason was that he was in trouble. During Xellos' whole search for answers of Zelgadis' family history he had not had the chance to properly feed himself. And expending so much energy as he had for the search Xellos needed food badly. Right now it wasn't life threatening but it would be eventually. And since he was trapped in this dark blue prison of his he had no access to any possible food source. 

Somehow Xellos found himself drift off into sleep which did seem odd to him. But he did not fight his sleepiness, he not much else to do so why not dream? But Xellos not having much experience with dreaming didn't know that sometimes dreams could be unpleasant even for a monster. 


	20. An Odd Feeling part 20

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty

By Relm

~*~

The creature admired the sword of light that it held in its hands. There had once been a time where it had been afraid of the sword knowing exactly what could be done to it by someone using the sword. But now with the sword in hand the creature couldn't help but feel a little powerful. Though it wouldn't let the power go to it's head like Gar had done. 

The creature was silent as it snuck into the library. The reason for it coming there? Not even the creature knew why. 

With Mr. Hender researching in one of the wings, the others gone for dinner and Popo asleep in the study room the creature was alone in the downstairs lab. The machine that held the forming body of Zelgadis Greywers hummed softly with the occasional bursts of steam coming out from the piping. 

The creature's grip on the sword tightened. It had a lot of power if it's hands at that moment. The power of life and death. And with that power the creature had a decision to make. With Gourry's sword of light being one of the only physical things that the creature could hold in it's hands the creature could in fact at that moment stop the machine and kill Zelgadis as well. Just a couple good swings with the sword of light and the machine could be reduced to nothing more then a pile of rubble. There wasn't anything or anyone to stop the creature at that moment, and it could get away quite easily if it needed. 

So then why hadn't the creature done anything yet? Well though there was all the method there for it but it was lacking some of the motive. Most of it's dislike was for Gar. Did it want to kill Zelgadis? It had no idea. Part of it wanted to kill the once cursed chimera. But another didn't want to. The question was, which of it was more dominant? 

~*~

Xellos tossed and turned on the cold floor of his blue prison. His breathing was labored and his face reflected his fear. 

He was dreaming that he was in a dark room. He wasn't a monster, he was human, a powerless human. He possessed no special strength, no sword or swordsmen skills he didn't have a weapon at all, and worst of all no magic. 

He was being stared at. All the people and creatures that he had tormented and killed surrounded Xellos. There were also other monsters in there. Some that had been killed and others that were just plain nasty but each one of them glared at Xellos with devilish, evil smiles. With plans of mischief and evil deeds clearly displayed in their eyes. 

None of the people or creatures had done anything to him yet. All they did was stare at Xellos. Each one evilly staring with cold eyes. Everything was silent, deathly silent. None of them spoke and neither did Xellos. He didn't even move while he was under their penetrating gaze. He couldn't. He didn't understand why he couldn't move. He felt an alien feeling to him. 'Is this fear?' 

Many times in the past he had feasted on the emotion of fear. But how many times had he even experienced fear? He couldn't think straight. So he just stood there, cornered and up against a wall with the many eyes burning through him with their stares. 

~*~

Back at the inn/restaurant Sylphiel, Gourry, Amelia and Lina had finished their meals. The restaurant staff was glaring daggers at them as they left. Though it was nice to get a lot of business from customers, but the four of them cleared out too much of the restaurant's food supplies. But if Lina had been eating regularly then there would have been much less. 

Gourry, Sylphiel, Amelia and Lina stood around in the inn lobby. Each of them was restless and unsure what to do. They were well aware that early the next morning Zelgadis would be finished in the machine and would come out dead or alive. They all knew that they should go to bed early so that wouldn't get up late the next day but they also knew that if they tried to go to sleep they wouldn't be able to. 

They did have a few options open to them for stuff to do but it wasn't much. Though the town's library was quite large the town wasn't really that big. It did have quite a few things that one could do in town only it was for daytime activities. 

"So what are we all going to do now?" Gourry asked. He could remember that he had something that he was going to do only he couldn't remember quite that well on what it was. 

"I don't know. Anyone got plans?" 

"Well Miss Lina I guess since I have the free time I'm going to go back to reading that book of mine." 

"And what book is that Amelia?" 

"The 1050 rules and regulations of justice and peace!" Amelia said triumphantly pulling out her book dramatically showing everyone with trumpets blaring off in the background. 

Everyone minus Amelia facefaulted. 

"Okay then Amelia you go and do that. Um Sylphiel what about you?" 

"Well I promised I do something with Gourry." Sylphiel said with a small blush. 

"Yeah I'm doing something with Sylphiel." Gourry declared but from the confusion in his eyes you could tell that he still didn't remember what. 

"But Miss Lina what are you going to do?" 

Lina thought hard for a minute. "You know I really don't know. I guess I should go and get an early start to bed. I don't want to sleep through Zelgadis finally getting out of the machine." 

"Okay then Miss Lina we'll see you in the morning!" 

~*~

Lina paced in her room. There was no way that she could fall asleep just like that. But she was worried. She was worried about what was going to happen tomorrow. Worst of all she was afraid to go to sleep. She knew that in her dreams she was vulnerable. Zelgadis' ex-demon part could get into her dreams when she was asleep and could easily kill her. It had tried two times before whose to say that it wouldn't try again? 

'If only I had my magic then I might be able to conjure up some spell to protect me while I sleep.' Of course Lina didn't know of any spells that would keep her safe in sleep but she didn't doubt that there wasn't one out there. 

A part of her was really tired, the other was really charged and wouldn't let her sleep. She lay down on her bed wishing that she did have her magic. 'If I had my magic I could protect myself and be able to cast a damn sleep spell.' She rolled over to her side and sighed in frustration. 'I should just go to sleep and worry about the problem if and when it comes. Because I need sleep. I can't go without it. Not at this time.' She mentally declared. But even with that declaration that didn't help her fall asleep any faster. She was too wide-awake. Frowning mentally scowled. Then all of a sudden her eyes started to feel very heavy and they closed as she fell victim to sleep. 

Gar looming over her smiled. 

~*~

The creature had the blade in ready position to strike the machine. And it needed to do was lunged forward and commence the strike. Doubt still clouded its mind. 'Should I? Or shouldn't I kill Zelgadis?' But the more important question was, was there still a life to kill? 

~*~

Gar softly cackled. 'There shall be no interruptions this time.' 

~*~

Two strange spirit like creatures. Two lives at risk… 


	21. An Odd Feeling part 21

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-one

By Relm

~*~

Maybe at one moment the creature was certain on why it wanted to kill Zelgadis but now it wasn't. 'Why do I want him dead?' It knew that it felt some sort of hatred towards Zelgadis, but it was uncertain on what the source of that anger was. Though it was aware that the anger it felt towards the once cursed chimera was nothing more then indirect anger. But to whom the creature truly felt the anger towards eluded it. Sometimes images would flash through its head on who the anger was truly for but they were too brief for it to make sense out of it. But then it's not like it cared much at all if it knew the identity of the person for which its' anger was for. All the creature wanted was for it to end. For everything to end and stop going on like it was. 

So in it's confusion it still stood there staring at the machine, unsure of what it was going to do. 

~*~

Gar almost laughed at the opportunity that stood before. There the great Lina Inverse lay asleep and totally defenseless. No one could possibly stop him this time. 'Ah poor little Miss Inverse, there isn't much that can save you now.' He gave her a mischievous grin. 

He sat back for a minute trying to decide on what method he was going to try this time to kill her. The thought hadn't occurred to him that maybe his time was short and that he shouldn't waste so much time thinking of trivial things. Well actually a part of his mind did remind him of that put he silenced that voice. 'I am invincible and no one can stop me from getting what I want!' He pulled out the dark blue crystal that he kept inside his cloak. 'I certainly proved that with you huh fruitcake?' Again Gar resisted the urge to smash the crystal into many pieces. 

Even though Gar and Zelgadis shared similar hatred for certain people, the hatred Gar felt for Xellos was a bit different. He loathed him because him and Xellos were so similar. Monsters and demons, they are both children of chaos and destruction. Only monsters are supposedly superior to other evil creatures. Gar hated that. He didn't want to think of himself as being lower then anyone. He didn't want to believe that they could be those who are stronger and powerful then him. That's why Gar took great satisfaction in the fact that even in his less then tangible state he was able to trap Xellos and have him reduced to a hapless weakling trapped in his prison. 'Now just think about it Zelgadis, if you had let me have control before then I could have easily had Xellos out of our hair. But no you always had to be power hungry and always have control over everything! Using me like I was something lower then you. Well how does it feel to not be in control Zelgadis? How do you feel knowing that you are going to loss practically everything and there's nothing you can do about it?' Gar laughed darkly. He had made his decision on what he was going to do. 

~*~

In Zelgadis' deep void something stirred in the back of his mind. A warning that danger was lurking about. But Zelgadis in his intoxicated state ignored it and continued to drift in and out of sleep. 

~*~

The creature inched closer towards the machine that held Zelgadis Greywers' body. Its' grip on the sword was tighter then ever. It had made its decision and was going to go through with it when it felt a strange jolt through its' body. 

'What is going on? What is Gar doing?' The creature stumbled backwards disoriented from the strange jolt. 'Gar is attacking Lina again through her dreams. And there's no one to stop him this time.' The creature's eyes widened. Without much thought the creature disappeared from the lab and reappeared in Lina's room. Gar wasn't in view but the creature knew where he was. The expression on Lina's face made it clear enough on where Gar was and what he was doing. 

Chanting in an ancient language the creature circled around Lina's bed placing items on the floor around Lina's bed. 

~*~

Lina felt cold again. She was walking around in a dark colorless forest with shadows that surrounded her from all directions. 'Where am I? How did I get here?' Lina shivered and her teeth chattered from the freeze. 'What I wouldn't wish for a fire around here…' 

"Is that what you really want?" A dark voice cackled. 

Suddenly fire surrounded Lina trapping her. The wall of fire around her raged with only no hints of it dying down. 

Even in this inferno Lina desperately shivered. The fire was blue not red and it emitted off cold instead of heat. 

~*~

The creature finished its' chanting and light appeared all around in Lina's room. And just as quickly as the light appeared it disappeared. It appeared that nothing had changed in the room. All the furniture and other items in the room where still in its place. Nothing was missing or nothing had been added. The only real difference was the expression on Lina's sleeping face. Her face instead of being one that expressed pain and fear now looked to be the normal expression of someone sleeping. 

'That should take care of Gar tonight. He shouldn't be able to bother Lina again tonight. The gods know that she deserves a decent night of sleep. I just hope Gar isn't aware who kicked him out of the dream.' The creature cackled itself and proceeded to increase the powers of the protection barrier to extend for the whole room making it impossible for Gar to re-enter the room at all. While the creature tended to the barrier a thought had crossed its' mind. 'Why did I save her?' At first the creature just brushed it off but after a while started to give it some thought. 'Because my business is with Gar and Zelgadis, Lina shouldn't be involved. And I did decide that I was going to meddle in all of Gar's plans.' The creature smiled as it finished its work. 

The creature went back to the lab and stared at the machine again. Yes it had made its' decision. But it wasn't to kill Zelgadis. Killing Zelgadis is one of the things that the creature suspected that Gar wanted and the creature didn't want Gar to get his way. That and its' reasons to kill Zelgadis weren't great enough that it would actually go with it. 

"For now we're on the same sides I guess." The creature put its' hand to the machine and bowed to it. "But if I were you Zelgadis Greywers I'd come back alive because I can't promise to do these favors you if you are dead." And it left with that as a parting note and disappeared and reappearing elsewhere to tend to other manners. 

~*~

Gar wanted to hit something. He was one very angry demon. 

He had been so close to finally doing away with the bothersome Lina Inverse that annoyed him so much. But then all of a sudden he thrown out of the dream and back into his secrete dwelling. Gar tried to get back as he tried to reappear back into Lina's room he felt a large shock and was repelled back to where he was before. 

But that wasn't the worse of it. After Gar was sent back he realized that more then half his energy had been drained from him. 

"Who the hell did this to me?!?!?! And just how were they able to do it?!?!?" Gar yelled his questions out to the wind with no one to answer him. "How was it possible for someone to do that to me? Zelgadis, Lina and that old man are the only ones who know of my existence. No one should have been able to stop me!!!!!" 

Gar was angry, and his eyes shone with bloody vengeance. Someone was going to pay for interfering with his plans. 


	22. An Odd Feeling part 22

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-two

By Relm

~*~

That morning Lina woke with the vague realization that something had happened during her sleep the night before. Despite the warmth in the room Lina felt the same deathly chill she had had in her dream, which Gar had entered. 'Probably Zel's ex-demon part again. But what stopped him this time? Last time Popo woke me up but no one woke me up this time…' Lina mused as she got out of her bed. To her surprise she saw little stones placed all around her bed. Curiously she picked one of them up to examine. The one she held in her hands was polished, palm sized and somewhat round. It was a light blue green color and a symbol was one side of it. The odd thing about the symbol was that wasn't one that she recognized and it appeared that the symbol had been burned on the stone. She placed it back where it was and picked up another one. This one was a creamy pink color and had a different but still unidentifiable symbol burned onto it. All the stone where polished, round and the same size and shape with different colors and symbols. 

Though Lina should have been disturbed or angry that someone had been able to get into her room to place the stones near her bed but she was too interested in the stones themselves. 'What are they used for? And what are they doing in my room?' 

Just as Lina had that thought a sudden light blinded her. When the light dissipated and she opened her eyes all the stones had disappeared except for the first one that she had picked up. 

"Oh great, disappearing people and now stones?" Lina shook her head and picked up the remaining stone. 'Might as well keep it. Maybe I'll figure what it is and what it's for later.' 

~*~

Xellos grudgingly opened his eyes after waking up from his dream. He hadn't woken up in fear from his nightmare, he wasn't sure what woke him up. But he didn't want to open his eyes. Xellos was afraid that he would see what he was expecting to see, the dark blue color of his prison. 

Though he still opened his eyes anyway and to his surprise he saw faint light peering through beige curtains, hardwood floors and white walls. He was in a room at the inn. Though happy that he was free from his entrapment Xellos didn't get up from off the floor. Instead in his still tired and weak state he nodded off again and back to sleep. 

Unknown to Xellos in his sleeping state, he had been freed from Gar's created prison and was lying in Zelgadis' room at the inn. The same voice that had promised him freedom had in fact done what it said it was going to do. 

The creature stared at Xellos' sleeping form as it sat on Zelgadis' bed. 'His condition isn't well. Perhaps with some rest he should be fine later. He'd better be, I'm going to need him to do that favor for me. But I wonder will Xellos be able to see me? And will Gar even realize that Xellos is gone?' The creature silently chuckled. 

~*~

Lina figured from the lack of people in the restaurant that she was up pretty early. 'I wonder when everyone else is going to get up… Oh well if I have to eat alone then it doesn't matter. No Gourry to take my food.' Lina smiled mischievously as she looked at the menu. From the previous nights since this whole problem had happened Lina hadn't been able to get a good nights sleep at all. Then add that time of the month on top of that. So needless to say her appetite hadn't been it's normal size. 

But that wasn't the case this morning. She was feeling better then yesterday and she gotten a goodnights sleep so she was definitely up to a big meal. 

After she had ordered her food, Lina pulled out that stone from her pocket. She fingered the symbol lightly with the tip of her right index finger. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't think of anything that looked anything like it. It kinda resembled a flame with a cross in the middle. Or at least she thought it looked like a flame. 'I wonder if Mr. Hender would know what it is. I might as well ask him when I see him later.' She looked up to the clock at the other side of the room. 'Just a few more hours and the machine will be done.' 

Just then the food came and Lina started to dig in making most of the restaurant staff wonder if she was inhuman with her appetite. 

~*~

An hour or so later Lina headed over to the library. From the thick gray clouds rain poured down drenching all those who went outside, just the same very few people were walking the streets. Lina was practically alone as she walked. The normally busy and noisy streets where quiet. The only sounds were that of the rain splashing on the ground and the sound of Lina walking. She shivered hugging her arms. When she had gotten up and looked outside it hadn't been raining nor did it appear like it was going to. But only moments before Lina had finished her meal had the rain started to pour. Though it was only a simple raining day Lina couldn't help but think how the weather added to a macabre scene to what was to come. Was Zelgadis going to live? Or was he going to be dead? And what were they going to do otherwise in either case? 

As Lina opened the door she was nearly knocked over as a round blue object smashed right into her. 

"Padupleeedoi." Popo said with a cheery smile. 

"Good morning to you too." Lina gave him a small smile while giving him a pat on the head. "So where's Mr. Hender?" 

"Pweepda!" Popo declared and zoomed off through the library with Lina following him. 

Popo lead Lina to one of the wings where Mr. Hender sat leafing through some books. The man's clothes where rumpled and his skin was pale. He looked very tired and his face showed it. He had large bags under his eyes and he rubbed his forehead with his fingers. 

"Hi Mr. Hender. Find any useful information?" Lina sat down at the table and picked up one of the discarded books. It was in a language that she didn't recognize. 

"Unfortunately no. I have found information but nothing that would help us that much." He sighed and put the book that he was looking at down. He leaned back in his chair with eyes closed. 

"I take it you didn't sleep well last night." Lina observed. 

"No I didn't sleep well last night, I didn't sleep at all. I stayed up all night researching. I just wish that this problem could be one that I could have a better chance at figuring out." Mr. Hender sighed again and picked started to stack up the books. He wasn't planning on putting them away just yet but he couldn't stand just having them laying there in a mess. 

"I might have a challenge that you might find more easier to figure out." 

"What?" 

"Can you tell me about this stone?" 

Lina handed Mr. Hender the blue green stone that she had found in her room. He looked at it with a bit of curiosity. He mentally noted the size, shape and color of the stone as well as the symbol that appeared on it. "Tell me Miss Lina where did you find this?" 

"Tell me what you know about it first them I'll tell you were I got it." 

"Very well. Now I remember reading about a type magic that is some what like shamanism in the fact that it deals with nature, only this type dealt more importantly with the aspects of nature symbolized in stones. Now from this symbol literally stands for 'soul protection'. You see it? This ball of flame is supposed to be a person's spirit. And the cross inside stands for protection and healing. This stone could have been used to heal or protect someone, especially if it is used in correlation with other stones. Like curing someone who is sick, warding off bad spirits or protecting someone from bad dreams and so on." 

"Do you think that sort of stuff works?" 

"Well I'm not sure, this is the first time I've ever really seen one of these. Where did you get it?" 

"It was laying on the floor in my room around my bed when I woke up. There were other ones too that were different colors and had different symbols." 

"Do you have the others?" 

"No all them disappeared a few minutes after I woke up. That one was the only one that was left." 

"This is rather odd I'd have to say…" Mr. Hender mused and handed back the stone to Lina, "You may as well hold onto this. Whether it works or not it might be a good idea to hold onto it." 

Lina deftly nodded and placed the stone back in her pocket. 'I wonder how much someone would be willing to pay for a stone like this.' Lina wondered. 

"Do you want a towel or something to dry off? You look pretty wet from the rain." Mr. Hender finished stacking the last bit of the books. 

"No I'm fine." 

"So where are the others? Not up yet?" Mr. Hender picked up the stack of books and put them back to his re-shelving table. 

"Probably not. They'll be here later. How time do we have left till the machine is done?" 

"How about we go and find out?" 

~*~

According to the machine it would be done in less then two hours. Mr. Hender looked over the machine. Everything seemed fine and working correctly. Not seeing anything wrong or odd with the machine he left Lina alone in the lab to go get himself some more coffee. 

At first Lina sat down at the stairs staring at the floor. The she started playing with her wet hair. Then she got up and started to pace around the room. But then she stopped a moment when something caught her eye. On a glass part of the machine Lina could clearly see the smudge of a very large and very odd-looking handprint. 'What the hell is that?' She blinked a few times. It didn't look human in the slightest. 

~*~

With only a few moments to go Lina, Gourry, Amelia, Sylphiel, Mr. Hender and Popo were down in the lab with their eyes glued to the machine. And before their eyes the machine made it's final hum as its door opened. Steam shot out making it hard to see what was inside. But soon enough the steam cleared to reveal a human looking Zelgadis. His hair was the same style only now it was soft human hair that was a bit more of a light lavender color then it had been. His clothes were the same as they had been and his eyes though closed looked the same and his ears weren't pointed anymore. But probably the most noticeable change was Zelgadis' skin. It was no longer the greenish blue stony texture that it had been. He had fair pale skin. 

Very pale skin. 

Deathly pale skin. 

Everyone could only stare at Zelgadis. He was laying too still in the machine, he didn't appear to be moving at all. 

"He can't be… can he?" Amelia said in an almost whisper. 

No one dared answer her. They all stood there in silence, not one moved or said a word. Finally Lina walked over to the machine. She went to put her hand up to Zelgadis' neck to see if he had a pulse when all of a sudden he started to stir. Lina pulled her hand back and stared at Zelgadis as he started to wake up. 

Zelgadis opened his eyes and everything was dark all around him. He blinked rapidly and the room started to lighten up and what he saw were the fuzzy images of people standing around him. The fuzziness cleared up and he could see everything perfectly. 

"Thank the gods Zelgadis you're okay! You really had us scared there, we thought you were dead!" Lina said extending her arm so that Zelgadis could grab her hand and help him out of the machine. 

"Well as you can see I'm not dead." Zelgadis said in a shaky voice. He could barely get himself up even with Lina's help. His whole body felt like jelly and he was feeling extremely weak and fatigued. "Um can I ask you a question?" Zelgadis looked at Lina in the face. 

"Sure, what do you want to know?" 

Zelgadis bit his lip and frowned a bit before he spoke. "Umm… just who are you?" 


	23. An Odd Feeling part 23

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-three

By Relm

~*~

Everyone gasped in shock. Even though Zelgadis was alive his memory was gone. 

"Do you remember anything?" Lina asked with a worried frown. 'What are we going to do now?' 

Zelgadis looked around the room staring at the faces that were looking at him. He knew that he should feel something that these people standing around him were people that he should remember but he couldn't. "If you are asking if I can remember you all, then I have to say that I don't. The only thing that seems familiar is the name you called me, Zelgadis… I know that's my name, but other then that I remember nothing else." He went to walk a few steps only his legs didn't seem to be working like they should and he stumbled. He would have fallen to the ground if Lina hadn't steadied him. 'Why am I so tried and weak?' 

"Memory loss was something that we expected. But you're going to have to take it easy for a little while. You're body still needs time to adjust. We should probably get him to sit down and have something to eat." Mr. Hender suggested. 

~*~

Moments later they had Zelgadis sitting at a table in Mr. Hender's kitchen. It had taken quite a bit of effort to get Zelgadis up the stairs. His whole body was like a rag doll and Zelgadis could barely move his legs or keep himself up. 

It took most of Zelgadis' strength to keep himself sitting upwards in his chair. He felt tired and desperately wanted to sleep. 

"I'm not hungry. I'm just feeling tired, you don't need to feed me." Zelgadis tried to keep his voice steady but instead it still sounded shaky. 

"Nonsense! Just because you don't feel hungry doesn't mean that you aren't. You haven't had anything to eat in days. You're body is screaming at you to eat only the message isn't getting to your brain. You'll see once you start eating you'll realize how hungry you truly are. As for sleepiness, that's natural too but you need nourishment first." Mr. Hender said while he placed a bowl of thick soup in front of Zelgadis. 

Zelgadis had to admit the soup looked tempting and the aroma was a delight to his senses, but he stared down at the spoon. He was barely able to keep his head up, how was he supposed to pick up his spoon and feed himself? A small voice in the back of his head reminded him that the others could help him eat. He mentally scowled at that thought. 'I wont let someone feed me like I'm a baby.' 

With whatever strength he could muster Zelgadis picked up the hateful spoon. Though the spoon was nothing more then a mere normal spoon it felt like it weighted a ton. But he persevered on and brought the spoon to the bowl. It was then that he noticed that everyone was watching him with interest. Ever since he got out of the machine everyone was staring at him. Mostly everyone stared at him with awe and curiosity like a lab experiment. Only Lina and Mr. Hender didn't look at him in that way. Both of them appeared to be having something on their minds and both looked at him with worried expressions. Nether or less Zelgadis didn't like being the center of attention and was feeling slightly embarrassed at everyone staring at him. 

He returned his attentions to the soup and finally brought the steaming hot liquid to his mouth. Once swallowing the spoonful of soup Zelgadis suddenly felt very sharp pains in his stomach. Mr. Hender was right he was really hungry and the feeling of something going into his stomach after not having anything in it for so long was very painful. 

"Owww…" Zelgadis groaned clutching his stomach. 

"I'd hate to say this but, I told you so." Mr. Hender lightly smiled. 

Zelgadis smiled too while rolling his eyes. Feeling how hungry he truly was Zelgadis suddenly had motivation to eat and he ate despite his tiredness. 

~*~

After finishing two bowls of soup Zelgadis was taken to a bed in the guestroom. Upon contact with the pillow Zelgadis was asleep. Everyone let him be for a while and went to have a group discussion in another room. 

"Mr. Hender is Mister Zelgadis going to get his memory back?" Amelia asked with teary eyes. 

"Well Miss Amelia I don't know. It may return to him instantaneously or it might return to him in time. But then he might not ever have his memory back ever again. But we should be thankful that he's alive. He could have very well been dead when the machine was opened." Mr. Hender spoke sagely. They had to admit he was right. Though the situation wasn't exactly what they had hoped for they were going to have to make the best of it. 

"You're right Mr. Hender! If we have justice and love in our hearts we can triumph over this evil and Mister Zelgadis can get his memory back!" Amelia struck one of her poses with flowers and stars floating around her. 

Everyone facefaulted. 

"Ahem yes Miss Amelia. For now I think we should all find ways that we can help Mister Zelgadis and make him comfortable." 

At Mr. Hender's suggestion everyone except Lina and Mr. Hender left the room in search of tasks to do. 

The two of them just stared at each other. Neither spoke because they knew what each other was thinking and neither wanted to voice their thoughts. 

Finally after a few minutes Lina spoke. "Mr. Hender we have a problem…" 

"Yes I'm aware of that. But we don't know if Mister Zelgadis would be able to help us anyway if he still had his memory. Though I guess it's foolish to think that he could have possibly came out of the machine with his memory intact. He was in just too damn long." 

"I know. But what are we going to do about Zel's ex-demon part?" 

"I don't know, I honestly don't know…" 

~*~

Zelgadis' dreams were filled with many images that flashed by. Ones of people and places that went by too quick for Zelgadis to recognize. Some of the images invoked odd almost foreign emotions, while others did not. No matter what the images were, they were still giving him a big headache. There was just too many images for his eyes to focus on and all the confusion surrounding him was causing his head to feel like it was being split in two. 'What is all this? What's going on? Who am I? Who am I?!' 

"Who am I…?" Zelgadis opened his eyes. He was lying in the same bed that the others had placed him in. It wasn't a large room. It had a bed, desk and a small table with some chairs. The décor wasn't lavish, it was simple. Blue curtains on the windows, hardwood floors and white walls. But the room had no door, only a doorway. Zelgadis figured they put him this room so that they could easily hear him if there was something wrong. 

He sat up and rubbed his temples. 'What was all that? Is anything ever going to make sense?' The whole time since he'd been out of the machine Zelgadis had been confused. Confused about his surroundings, confused about the people he saw and confused about himself. He felt this awful feeling of uncertainty. The others talked to him as if they know him, but proof did Zelgadis have that he knew them, that they were really his friends? Not a single memory was evoked from being around them. 

He sighed and got up and went to the window to his right. The sun was setting outside making the sky look a melody of shades of orange, red and purple. He had not known what time of day it was when he had went to sleep, so he didn't know how long he had been sleeping. But something felt odd. He did feel weak from the whole process his body had went through only he knew there was something wrong about him. Something that should be different then the way he was now. 

Suddenly Zelgadis felt the feeling of being watched and when he turned his head he saw the one whom had introduced herself as Lina staring past him to the window. 

"Pretty sunset huh?" Lina said stepping forward to stand next to Zelgadis. 

"Yeah I guess. I don't have any other sunsets in my memory to compare it with though… So how long was I asleep?" 

"Probably a good seven hours or so. I didn't keep track. Feeling any better?" 

"Physical? Yes. Mentally or emotionally, no." Zelgadis spoke in one of his usual depressive stoic tones. 

Lina almost chuckled. 'Even without a memory he still sounds like his normal self.' 

"What was I doing in that machine, and why can't I remember anything?" He turned his head to look her straight in the eye. 

"Well it's a long story. It started off like this…" 

~*~

Many moments later… 

"…and when you came out of the machine you couldn't remember anything. So does that clear it all up?" Lina asked cheerily. Naturally she left out the parts of the story to do with his ex-demon part trying to kill her and how they were all in incredible danger. 'He doesn't need to know that stuff now…' 

Zelgadis had wide eyes. He wasn't just surprised about everything she had told him. Though she gave the whole story starting from when Rezo first cursed him and turned into a chimera down to everything that had happened recently. What surprised him was how much Lina could talk. His headache worsened just try to process everything that she told him. 

"Ah… yes that does…" 

Lina flashed a victory sign and Zelgadis found himself subconsciously chuckling. 

"Anyway we're all heading out back to inn to go have a celebratory dinner. And since you're the reason we're going to celebrate you have to come with us. Okay?" Lina half asked, half ordered. 

Zelgadis deftly nodded and followed Lina down the stairs. 

"Where are the others?" 

"They are already at the inn." 

"Is uh, Mr… um Mr..He…" 

"Mr. Hender." 

"Is Mr. Hender coming too?" 

"Nope he's staying here at the library. He still has work to do. So lets go and eat!" Lina cheered. 

~*~

Zelgadis sat uneasily at the table. He had the strange feeling that a battle was going to happen at any moment only he wasn't sure why. But when the food finally came Zelgadis finally saw the answer. 

Lina and Gourry started having a food argument, one that naturally Gourry had started by stealing food. Zelgadis watched in amazement at the two. 'All this commotion… over food?' He slumped low in his chair. Lina and Gourry were making quite a scene and most of the people eating in the restaurant were staring at the group. 

"What do you mean I shouldn't eat too much?!?!?" Lina screamed at Gourry. 

"Well if you eat too much you'll bust out everywhere besides your bust." 

(SMASH!) 

Lina smashes a plat over Gourry's head. Zelgadis made a mental note not to ever get on her bad side. 

~*~

The creature watched the sleeping monster with interest. Xellos was talking in his sleep. He seemed to be dreaming about someone named Filia and deviously smiling followed by expressions of pain like he'd been hit by something hard. 'Weird monster.' The creature shook its head. Then all of a sudden he became aware of people moving in the halls. He could hear three voices, Lina, Amelia and Zelgadis. 'What? So he lived… Damn they are probably coming to this room!' The creature scowled. It couldn't let them see Xellos like this. 'And can Zelgadis see me?' 

~*~

"So this is your room where you suddenly disappeared on us and were you casted that stupid spell that caused all this mess." Lina opened the door to reveal a dark room. Lina casted a light spell to illuminate the room. It was empty and in the same condition that they last seen it in. 

"Well Mister Zelgadis I hope you sleep well. And if you need anything our rooms are just down the hall. Goodnight." 

"Yeah goodnight Zel." 

The two left Zelgadis alone in his room. 'They expect me to sleep now? I'm not even tried… I was sleeping just a few hours ago.' Still he lay on his bed and tried to sleep even if it was pointless. Surprisingly enough Zelgadis fell asleep right away. 

The creature watched the sleeping form of Zelgadis with interest. It had moved Xellos to another room and it was back in Zelgadis' room. The creature was a bit surprised with Zelgadis. Indeed Zelgadis looked exactly like he was supposed to, like he had been before Rezo had changed him. But even though there were no visible differences with Zelgadis, but there was something different. The creature could easily sense the difference something wasn't right. He sensed something in Zelgadis that he didn't sense before. 'What changed in him after he was cured?' The creature could only guess an answer to that question. 


	24. An Odd Feeling part 24

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-four

By Relm

~*~

Zelgadis tossed and turned in his sleep. Instead of just having too many images flashing through his head in his dreams he was actually having a nightmare. Everything was blurry around him, like as if he was looking through water. He was being hurt by unknown things that he couldn't see. He tried to scream only no sound would escape from his mouth. And even if it did he wouldn't have been able to hear his own voice because his voice would have been drowned by the many other sounds around him. Just like the images he couldn't make out the sounds clearly. There was voices talking, voices screaming and voices evilly laughing. Zelgadis wanted to scream and yell at the voices to shut up. 

~*~

Gar glared into space. Being that he wasn't regenerated completely enough he was stuck staying where he was till his body was completely reenergized. So he was left sitting in his bleak hideout want to scream and break a thousand things. To say that Gar was angry was an understatement. He wanted to savagely kill whoever denied him of what he was after. He had been so close to killing Lina Inverse that he almost tasted her blood. 

"Ten more minutes… ten more minutes then I can get out of here and find the bastard who did this to me…" Gar growled out. 'I know what I can do, I can take the sword of light that I cleverly sealed away and use that to do the job. No one can stop me with that in my hands.' 

The next ten minutes for Gar seemed to last like an eternity, but as soon the time was up he bolted from his captivity and straight back into the town. 

He joyfully skipped his way over to the spot that he had made the dimensional pocket to store the sword while murderous thoughts of revenge filled his head. The thought hadn't occurred to him that he wasn't the only one who could have taken the sword from it's hiding place, nor did he think that anyone else knew where it was. 

Reaching the spot Gar re-opened the dimensional pocket and put his hand in to fish out the sword. Only when he did so he found that he couldn't feel the sword with his hands. He took out his hand and put his head in to look around the pocket and all he found was nothing. The sword wasn't there. 

"WHHHHHHAAAAATTTTT?!?!??!?!?!?!?!? HOW CAN THIS BE?!?!??!" Steam almost appeared to be coming out of his ears. 

Figuring that maybe it was in a different spot Gar tried checking around in different areas. But that one pocket was the only one that existed there. There was no way that it could have been anywhere else. 

'How the hell did this happen?!? No one knew of the sword except me! Hell not even that dumb Gourry knows that his sword is gone!' 

Gar started to pace around while he sorted his thoughts. He was so flustered that he wanted to destroy the whole town in his fury of rage. 

'Who could have even been able to open that pocket in the first place?' He couldn't think of anyone, but then a thought crossed his mind. 'Xellos could have… But that's impossible I have him trapped in my blue crystal!' 

Gar fished out his crystal that he thought held the infamous Xellos the Trickster Priest in it. He examined it and blinked a couple of times. Gar just stood there staring at the crystal for a long time before he took the thing and threw it to the floor, breaking it into a thousand pieces. 

"HOW DID HE ESCAPE?!?!? I HAD HIM TRAPPED!!!!!" Gar yelled out in frustration. 

~*~

The creature from his viewing point narrowed his eyes at the site of Gar on his yelling fit. 

'Well I'm surprised it took him this long to figure out that both his captive and the sword are not in his clutches anymore.' The creature softly chuckled, knowing very well that if it made too much noise that Gar would hear it and spot the cause of his troubles. 

The creature phased out into a different place so that it could sit and think. It was the in the inn in the same room where it had placed Xellos earlier. 

'Now that Zelgadis is cured and Gar has figured out that some of his plans are ruined, Gar is going to be rather dangerous. No doubt he's going to attack Zelgadis. But then Gar right now isn't even aware that Zelgadis is alive. He's been stuck in that void reenergizing the whole time. But it wont take long for Gar to find out. And if he attacks Zelgadis now in the way that he is, I wont be able to figure out what exactly Gar wants. Perhaps it would be better to make sure that Gar doesn't attack Zelgadis or any of them for now.' The creature knew that if Gar was going to attack any of them, he was going to do it when everyone was sleeping. So in order for them to be safe the creature was going to have to repeat the same spell that it had done for Lina in her room the night before. 

'If Lina hadn't picked up one of those stones then the barrier wouldn't have broken in her room. But of course since she still has the remaining stone, I don't need to do much to reactivate the spell.' 

The creature gathered up the stones it was going to need to do the task and first started with Xellos. Xellos was still sleeping as he had been before when the creature had checked up on him. So much sleep for a monster was definitely not natural. 

'No matter I'll fix that when I get back.' The creature once done in Xellos' room went and phased off into another room. 

~*~

Gar didn't leave the area where he had hidden the sword. He was still so blinded with rage and disbelieving that this could have happened to him. 'If that damned fruitcake Xellos managed to get out then how did he know where the sword was?! And how did that fruitcake even manage to escape!??!?! There shouldn't have been no way that he could have!!!' 

Gar kicked at nearby pail on the floor only his foot went right through it. He was about ready to scream or something when he caught sense of something. He could sense Zelgadis' presence very closeby. 

'Zelgadis survived?!?!?!' His eyes flashed with anger and rage once more but with something else in it too. There was an evil playfulness to his eyes. 'Heh heh, well now Zelgadis, I think it's about time I had a little fun…' Gar grinned an evil grin that matched the evil glint in his eyes. 

~*~

After doing everyone's rooms the creature was left with only Zelgadis' room to do. The creature watched the sleeping form of Zelgadis in his human state. Zelgadis wasn't sleeping peacefully; he was being gripped by a frightening and seemingly painful nightmare. 

'I wouldn't be surprised if it's demons from his past, back to haunt him.' The creature almost looked at Zelgadis with an expression of pity before getting started on the spell. 

After finishing placing the stones on the floor surrounding Zelgadis' bed, the creature began chanting the spell to activate the stones. When the creature finished and opened it's eyes it found itself staring at the now awakened Zelgadis, who seemed to be staring right back at the creature. 


	25. An Odd Feeling part 25

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-five

By Relm

~*~

The creature didn't move an inch. It just stood there still as a statue as Zelgadis seemed to stare it in the face. 

'Do I dare say anything?' The creature wondered. 

Zelgadis blinked a few times. Everything was clear around him except for this fuzzy blurred image right in front of him. And what was weird was as unclearly as Zelgadis could see the image, he could easily see through it. Though the image may be blurry, it was also transparent. 'Maybe it's something in my eye.' Zelgadis closed his eyes and rubbed them a bit. 

The creature took this a cue to the hell out of there. It breathed a sigh of relief. 'Did he see me? Well at least I finished the barrier in Zelgadis' room.' 

Zelgadis opened his eyes and there was no more blurry image standing before him. He just shook head and yawned and went back to sleep. 

~*~

The creature sat on a rock outside the inn and pondered what it wanted to do. It knew that everyone that Gar might go after was safe so it didn't need to worry about them. 'When was the last time I stopped to go and rest? Hmm… sleep…' It smiled with a faraway look. Sleep was something that it longed for, ever since it became aware. But not the usual sleep. If it wanted it could go to sleep quite easily, but what the creature wanted was to go into an eternal sleep. To fall asleep and never wake up. 'Well maybe I can't have my permanent sleep right now like I want to, but at least I can take a little nap to recharge. After putting up so many barriers my energy has really been drained.' 

The creature retired to a similar void that Gar retires to with intentions of sleeping but then it remembered Xellos. 'Yes that's right I was going to fix that problem. But then again it might fix itself. And besides I doubt that anything will happen to that annoying monster tonight anyway. So I'll just deal with it tomorrow.' The creature concluded and drifted off into sleep. 

~*~

Gar evilly smiled as he was about to teleport himself into Zelgadis' room. The thought hadn't occurred to him that he might meet some resistance while trying to enter the ex-chimera's room. Gar silently chuckled as he phased out and re-appeared right back in the void that he had been sent to before with his energy drained. 

"What the hell?!?!" Gar yelled in frustration. He wasn't happy to start off with and this just added to his anger. "When I find out whose been defiling with my plans I'm going to cause them serious pain!!!!" Gar huffed. He decided that he wasn't going to try entering in any of their rooms anymore. 

~*~

Xellos yawned as he lazily opened his eyes. He was in a room in the inn with no memory of how he got there. He faintly remembered his blue prison and the raspy ominous voice that promised freedom. 'Did that person free me?' Xellos smiled evilly. He got up with intentions of going off to cause some of his routine mischief when he noticed the room around him. On the floor around the bed lay a circle of pebbles. 'Hmm… curious… Now what would these be used for?' Xellos got up and went to examine one of the pebbles when he felt the sharp pains of hunger. 'I need a quick snack.' 

Rather then teleport himself somewhere the trickster priest walked to conserve energy. 

It was the middle of the night and mostly everyone was asleep in their rooms. Xellos frowned. 'Doesn't give me too many options. Where can I find a bunch of miserable people who are still awake?' He pondered that question for a few minutes. He then smiled and headed out to the town's local bar. 

In the smoky barroom many people were slumped in their chairs mulling over their drinks. Some people seemed to be enjoying themselves in their drunken state and others had long since passed out from the alcohol. What Xellos was looking for was the people in the room who were lost in their alcohol induced dark depressive states of mind. As soon as Xellos entered the room he found a victim right away. 

It was a middle-aged man who was glaring at the drink he held in his hand. He could have one of many problems, problems at home with his family, loosing his job, loosing his home, owing someone money that he didn't have, someone's out to kill him, etc. It didn't matter to Xellos what the man's problems were, all that mattered to him was that the man's dark negative emotions would be satisfactory to feed him. 

"Hello bartender, may I please have a cup of tea?" Xellos asked the bartender as he sat down next to the troubled man that he was going to feed off of. 

The bartender came Xellos a very sour look. "You drink in a bar, not sip tea!" 

"Why is there a problem with me having tea? And is tea not a drink in the first place?" Xellos spoke very innocently with a small smile. 

The bartender grumbled under his breath and went off to get Xellos' tea. Xellos grinned evilly. He was feeding off of the bartender's emotions. Xellos looked to the troubled middle-aged man that was next to him. "So are you enjoying the night?" 

After an hour later and a few annoyed/angry/depressed people later Xellos left the bar well fed and content. 

'Hmm… now what should I do now? Everyone would be sleeping at this time, so I really can't do anything until they wake up.' Xellos frowned. 'Well there were those strange stones in that room I was in, perhaps it might be interesting to check those out. And I might figure something else that I could do later.' 

~*~

Mr. Hender yawned and stretched as he sat up in his bed. Since he hadn't been getting very much sleep lately Popo had forced Mr. Hender to go and sleep the night before. And sleep did he. But the problem was that his sleep hadn't been very peaceful. Mr. Hender's dreams were littered with nightmarish thoughts and scenarios. 'It's a wonder that I wasn't attacked by Mister Zelgadis' ex-demon part in my sleep.' Mr. Hender lightly chuckled but sighed right after. He swung his legs around to the edge to get off the bed when he saw the circle of stones around his bed. 'What the…?' Mr. Hender got down on the floor to get a closer look at the stones. They appeared to be the same type of stone that Lina had shown just a day or two prior. 'Lina did say that she found a few stones in her room on the floor that hadn't been there the night before. But for what purpose do they serve? And why and who would do this?' 

Mr. Hender went and got a piece of paper with a quill and ink. Without moving any of the stones Mr. Hender sketched each of the symbols out on the paper in the order that they appeared in the circle. 

With all the symbols copied down Mr. Hender went and searched around for the book with the information on the magic that dealt with the stones. It took him a few minutes but eventually he found it. The book was called 'Terranda' and it was quite an old book with it's cover practically falling off of the book. 

Mr. Hender flipped through the large but tattered book looking for the symbol lists for certain spells and enchantments. 

About ten minutes later Mr. Hender finally found the one he was looking for. _Dream Barrier: Protects those in the circle from evil spirits entering their dreams and causing them harm by repelling the spirit from entering the circle._ Mr. Hender read with a raised eyebrow. 'A dream protection spell? So I was being protected in my sleep? How did someone manage to do this, and for what reason?' 


	26. An Odd Feeling part 26

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-six

By Relm

~*~

Sunrays poked through the curtains of the room in the inn that Lina was sleeping in. Lina scrunched up her face and tried to block out the sun that was shining on her. Eventually she gave up and opened her eyes. She had to squint because it was a very bright sunny day. She yawned and stretched and made a mental note to make sure the curtains where completely close before she goes to sleep at night. 

Lina swung her legs around to get off the bed and almost broke the circle of pebbles that was surrounding her bed. She frowned in confusion. 'Those things again? Now who keeps putting them here? And for what reason?' Lina looked over to her night stand and saw that the stone that she had taken from the previous time that the stone barrier had appeared was still there. And there was an identical one on the floor in the same exact spot in the circle that the other one had been in. 

Figuring that it would be best to leave the stone circle alone she picked up the stone from her nightstand and got dressed. Then she pulled out some paper and a pencil and copied out each of the symbols she saw in their order. 'Since they're here I might as well go see if I can find some information on it.' She finished marking the symbols down and left to get some breakfast. 

When she got down there Amelia and Sylphiel were already downstairs eating their breakfast. 

"Good morning Miss Lina!" Amelia spoke cheerily through her breakfast that was in her mouth. 

Sylphiel shook her and smiled at the famed bandit killer. "Good morning Miss Lina, did you sleep well?" 

"Until the sun woke me up." Lina said as she sat down. As soon as she sat on her chair a waitress immediately handed her a menu. "Wow, that was quick. Okay now what do I want…" Lina took a few minutes to tell the waitress her order and the waitress smiled and jotted the whole thing down. The waitress with the order completely written down went off to deal with the order. 'Jeeze we've definitely been here for a long time. The staff is starting to get used to me.' "So I'm Zel and Gourry not down yet?" 

"No they haven't. Gourry-dear is sleeping in like he usually does and well I guess Mister Zelgadis still needs rest." 

Lina nodded in agreement and then tried to steal some food from Amelia's plate. 

"Miss Lina! It's unjust to take other's food without permission!" 

"Well I'm hungry and how do you think I feel watching you two eat while I still have to wait. I'd say that's unjust too!" 

Amelia thought about that for a moment trying to decide what her answer would be to that statement when she noticed that Lina was trying to take food off her plate again. 

A little while later Lina finally was served her food and was digging in with a ferocious feeding frenzy. 

Sylphiel glanced over at Lina and frowned. "Um Miss Lina…?" 

Lina said something that could be translated as 'what?!' 

"Well there's something I wanted to talk to you about." 

Lina swallowed the food in her mouth. "What is it?" 

Sylphiel stared down at her empty plate. "That's night when I went to bed everything seemed fine in my room. I got ready got in my bed and went to sleep. Nothing seemed weird or out of the ordinary. But when I woke up this morning I found something strange. In my room surrounding my bed was a circle of different colored, polished, palm sized stones that each had a different symbol on it." 

Lina almost choked on her food. 'Uh-oh.' "That's interesting. Um what did you want to ask me about?" 

"Well if you knew what they were, what their purpose was, and who put them there." 

"Yes Miss Lina I wanted to know that too!" 

Lina gave the Sailune Princess a weird look. "Why? They were in your room too?" 

"Yes they were." 

Both of them stared at Lina expecting answers. 

"Um… well… I really don't know." 

Both girls facefaulted. 

"You mean you really don't know Miss Lina? Did they appear in your room too?" 

Lina thought for a moment. 'Should I just pretend that I've never seen them in my room before, or do I tell them?' "Yes." She decided on the later. "Are the stones still in your rooms?" 

"No they disappeared once one of us picked up one of the stones. But we still have the stones that we picked up. Hey Miss Lina do you think that Mr. Hender would be able to tell us anything about them?" 

"Maybe." 

"Okay then we should go ask him about it then!" 

Lina sighed. 'Just as long as they don't find out anything of Zel's ex-demon part roaming around. But who is doing this with the stones? And for what reason? I guess since their were in all three of our rooms that they were in the others too. Hmm… maybe I should go check on Zelgadis once I'm finished eating.' And with that Lina took another big mouthful of her breakfast. 

~*~

Zelgadis woke up to the sound of something opening his door. He instantaneously reacted before he even fully woke up and lunged forward with sword drawn and in hand. 

"Whoa!" Lina yelled and sprung backwards in reaction. "Nice to know that you still have those reflex actions without your memory." Lina nervously laughed. 'Next time I'll think twice before I sneak into Zel's room. But damnit, he was just as fast as we was a chimera…' 

Zelgadis lowered his sword and was a tad confused on what he had did. 'Wha? Why did I do that? How did I?' "I'm sorry, Lina is it?" 

"Yes Lina. And no problem Zel. I just wanted to go see how you were doing." Lina peered into his room and saw the very same stones that had appeared in her room. 

"Um fine I guess." Zelgadis rubbed the back of his neck. "I still can't remember anything though…" 

"Oh well it's probably going to take a little while before you'll get your memory back fully." 

"Yeah I guess." Zelgadis stretched and looked around and noticed the stones surround his bed. "Huh? Now what are those?" Zelgadis went over to examine them and Lina followed. 

"Those have appeared in my room, Sylphiel and Amelia's rooms too." 

"Hmm… I wonder if this has anything to do with that blurry thing I saw last night…" Zelgadis mumbled under his breath. 

"What did you say?" 

"No it's probably nothing." Zelgadis declared a bit sheepishly. 

"I don't care if you think it's nothing I still want to hear it." Lina spoke in a very dark and commanding tone. 

Zelgadis sweatdropped. "Um okay… Well last night I woke up and well I saw what seemed to be a blurry transparent thing in front of my bed. But then I rubbed my eyes and the thing was gone." 

'A blurry transparent thing? What the hell…' "What did it look like?" 

"Besides being blurry and transparent? I don't know. I didn't see it clearly. And it was also dark in my room. Why what do you think it was?" 

"I don't know…" 'I guess I need to talk to Mr. Hender about this…' 

~*~

Inside a strange void the creature slept not knowing that people were finally starting to become aware of it. 


	27. An Odd Feeling part 27

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-seven

By Relm

~*~

Later on that morning Gourry finally made his way downstairs to eat breakfast. It took them awhile but they finally got him to answer the question of those same stones being in his room too. Lina and company checked out the stones in Gourry's room and they concluded not only that the stone where the same as the other ones but they were also in the same order. Strangest thing of all Xellos whom had been missing for the past few days finally showed his face once they were about to head over to the library. 

"Good Morning Miss Lina!" Xellos said in a very cheerful manner. "I take it that you slept well last night?" 

Lina didn't get a chance to answer because Amelia was already bashing the hell out of him. Everyone stared at Amelia wide-eyed. 

"Gee Amelia you're starting to acting more and more like Lina everyday…" Gourry commented. 

Both Amelia and Lina bashed Gourry over the head. "She is/ I'm not acting like me/her!" Both of them yelled at the same time. 

Everyone else sweatdropped. 

Lina regained her composure and turned to the trickster priest. "So Xellos just where have you been for these past few days?" 

"That is a secret!" Xellos stated not so much like he would normally do. Everyone eyed him suspiciously. Xellos looked over a Zelgadis with a raised eyebrow. "So Zelgadis lived through it huh?" Xellos went to look him over more closely. 

Zelgadis didn't like how Xellos was visually analyzing him. 'Who is this guy?' Then Zelgadis thought back to what Lina had told him at the library the night before. 'Oh yeah Xellos, the untrustworthy, annoying and secretive monster and general priest to Greater Beast Zellas one of the remaining monster lords.' He didn't know why but he felt this impulse to cause Xellos bodily harm. 

Xellos mentally frowned at what was before him. Zelgadis appeared to be a regular weak human, what Xellos sensed otherwise. There was great magical power and strength that lay in Zelgadis' body. And Xellos could sense the non-human part of Zelgadis, but it wasn't a large part and Xellos couldn't make it out what it was. 'Looks like someone has gone to great lengths so that no one finds out about Zelgadis' non-human heritage. But then when didn't he have this power before he was turned into a chimera?' "So where are you all heading?" 

"We're going to go see Mr. Hender about something." 

"Oh really? What are you going to see him about?" 

"None of your business." 

"Ah, Miss Lina you're so cold. Maybe I could help you?" 

"You help us? I know for a fact that wouldn't happen. So now why don't you go off and do whatever you were doing before?" Lina said bitterly giving him a sour smile. 

"Miss Lina you're no fun." Xellos gave her a puppy dog face. 

"Go!" 

Xellos did as commanded and phased out and went elsewhere. 

"Okay now let's get over to see Mr. Hender." 

~*~

Mr. Hender was sitting at a table looking over books when Popo came in with Lina and everyone else minus Xellos. 

"Oh good morning everyone!" 

"Hello Mr. Hender. What are you doing?" 

"Trying to solve a mini-mystery of mine." 

"Does it have anything to do with this?" Lina put down the piece of paper in front of Mr. Hender. 

Mr. Hender picked up the piece of paper and was surprised to see that it was the exact same set of symbols that he had seen around his bed and wrote on a piece of paper. "Where did you see this?" 

"Each one of us found a circle of stones surrounding our beds all with symbols on it all in that order. Does it look familiar to you?" 

Mr. Hender got up and pulled out his own piece of paper that he wrote the symbols on. He showed them the paper and compared it with the one that Lina had made up. They were both the same. "I too saw this set of stones around my bed." 

"Do you know what it is?" 

"Well when I was checking my books I found one that told me about the magic involved with these stones." 

"Magic?" 

"Yes magic that deals with nature like shamanism but more importantly aspects of nature symbolized in stones. People would use these types of stones to cast various spells. Different combination of stones does different spells." 

"And what does this combination do?" 

Mr. Hender pulled out a book and flipped it to a page he had book marked. "This combination does a spell called 'Dream Barrier'. According to this it's a spell used to protect people sleeping in the circle from evil spirits entering their dreams and causing them harm. It's supposed to repelled an evil spirit if it tries to entered a protected person's dream." 

Everyone looked at each other with confused faces. "Who and why would someone do that?" Sylphiel asked for everyone else. 

"To be honest Miss Sylphiel that's what I'm trying find out. It seems like someone is trying to protect us from something." Mr. Hender looked at Lina from the corner of his eye. Lina knew exactly what they were being protected from but Mr. Hender didn't. He suspected that Lina knew. 'I'm going to need to talk to her later about this.' 

Lina was completely mystified. 'Whose trying to help us?' 

~*~

Xellos sat around on top of the roof of Mr. Hender's library. He was listening in on their conversation. 'That is very interesting…' Xellos grinned and decided to check out one of those sets of stones. He phased out into Lina's room to find himself in a dark weightless, soundless void. His eyes went wide in terror. "NOOOOOO!!! NOT AGAIN!!!!!!" 

~*~

Lina sent everyone on tasks in the library to go research things that could be useful to them. She was going to see what she could find some information on creatures that could enter dreams when She was pulled aside by Mr. Hender. 

"Miss Lina I need to talk to you about something." Mr. Hender motioned for her to follow him. 

They went into another room in the library and sat down at a table. 

"So what do you want to talk to m about?" 

"I think you know what we are getting protected from in our sleep." 

"Yes I do." There was a short pause before Lina continued. "We're being protected from Zelgadis' ex-demon part from entering our dreams." 

"How do you know that?" 

"Because it's attacked me in my dreams before." 

Mr. Hender blinked in surprise. "It has?" 

"Yes a few times. It tried to kill me after we put Zelgadis into the machine. Luckily Popo woke me up before it could do anything to me. I'm a pretty sure that Zel's ex-demon part tried to attack me on that night that those stones first appeared in my room." 

Mr. Hender frowned. 'This isn't a good turn of events.' "Do you have any idea what could be putting up these barriers?" 

"Not really. Zel said he saw something late last night." 

"What did he see?" 

"A blurry transparent image that disappeared right after he went to rub his eyes." 

"Did he see what it looked like?" 

"Not really. He couldn't see it clearly because it was dark in his room." Lina frowned. 'What the hell was it?' 

"So he didn't get a chance to see what it was huh?" 

Mr. Hender and Lina both turned themselves around and saw Xellos sitting in a chair with his feet up on the table and small smile on his face. 

"Xellos! And just what the hell are you doing?!?!?! I told you to go!!!" 

"Well I just came to tell you that I might know what is putting up those little barriers for you…" Xellos prompted. 

Lina narrowed her eyes at him. "Yeah I'm sure you do." Lina spat out sarcastically. 

"So you don't want to know? What a shame. I guess I should be off now." And Xellos phased out before Lina or Mr. Hender had any time to protest. 

"You don't think he knew what it was, do you?" Mr. Hender asked Lina. 

"I don't know…" 

~*~

Xellos was back on his spot on the library roof. He smiled. 'Well so now they are aware… that's either going to make things more difficult more easy.' Xellos grinned wider and opened his eyes. Only instead of his normal violet purple eyes Xellos' eyes glowed a golden yellow. 

~*~

Gar sat in his void counting the time. 'Just a little longer… and I can get revenge…' He darkly smiled. 


	28. An Odd Feeling part 28

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-eight

By Relm

~*~

Amelia felt the sense of being watched as she was reading through some books in the library. She looked over to her right and saw the cat-like grinning of Xellos the Trickster Priest who was sitting right next to her. She shook her head giving Xellos an evil look before returning to her reading. But even though she tried to concentrate on what she was reading she couldn't. Not with him intently staring at her like that. 

"What exactly are you doing Mister Xellos?" Amelia asked in fake sugariness. 

"Why watching you of course." 

"And why exactly are you doing that?" 

"Why not?" 

Amelia shook her head in annoyance. She was still a little bit miffed with Xellos, but not nearly as bad as she was before. "Mister Xellos, would you hand me that book over there?" Amelia motioned to a book right in front of him. 

Xellos picked up the book and leafed through it. "What are you looking for in here?" 

"I was going to see if I could find anything useful on helping a person with amnesia to get back their memory." 

Xellos frowned. "Then you shouldn't read through this one, it only talks about the effects of amnesia." Xellos looked around the room till he saw what he was looking for. He pulled out a book from a shelve and handed it to Amelia. "If you want something to help get back their memory you might find this book a bit more useful." Xellos grinned warmly and walked off whistling. 

Amelia regarded the book suspiciously. 'It can't be anything useful, there's no way that Mister Xellos would actually be helpful.' She opened the book carefully and started to read it over. 

~*~

After Lina's little chat with Mr. Hender she went back to looking up information on creatures that could enter dreams. She quite a bit of information too, but it was all useless information. There was nothing that Lina found that would be helpful to them at all. 

'Hmm… someone went into our rooms to put up these barriers to protect us in our sleep. And since both Amelia's and Sylphiel's dream barriers are gone like mine was before then that same thing that put the barriers will have to go back their tonight to put up new ones. So maybe we could stake out the rooms to see the creature when it shows up.' Lina grinned in thought but then frowned. 'But then I don't know if the thing will show up if there is anyone else in the room. I know Amelia and Sylphiel could pretend they are asleep and when the thing comes to they could get a good look at it.' Lina made a mental note to tell Sylphiel and Amelia before going back to her reading. 

Just as Lina picked up another promising but probably useless book Amelia came rushing in a huff. 

"Miss Lina!" Amelia ran over to her and successfully tripped on a little footstool and sent herself flying face first into a bookshelf. "AHHHH!!!! OWWWWW!!!" Amelia yelled as she was buried in books and parts of the now broken shelf. 

Lina shook her head and helped fished out the young Sailune princess from under the rumble. 

"You know Amelia you really should be more careful and not rush into things so fast." Lina said with a laugh. 

"Miss Lina! You shouldn't laugh at the misfortune of others! That's unjust and mean!" Amelia mumbled with many bright red marks on her face. 

"Okay Amelia I'm sorry. So why exactly were you in such a rush to get here?" 

"I have something important to tell you about Mister Xellos!" 

Lina rolled her eyes. "Great what did he do this time?" 

"Well I'm worried that something way be wrong with him." 

"Wrong? Like how?" 

"He's acting strangely. When I was looking for information on trying to get back someone's memory who has amnesia and Mister Xellos was actually helpful." 

Lina's eyes went wide in shock. "WHAT?!?! He was helpful?! What did he do?" 

"Well I asked him to hand me a book near him and he picked up the book I asked for and asked what I was looking for. I told him and then he said that the book I wanted wouldn't be helpful to me and then he handed me another book saying that that one would be helpful. And when I went to go read both the books I realized he was right! The one he handed me was actually helpful with many suggestions on what you could do to help someone get back their memory. While the book I originally wanted didn't help at all!" 

Lina blinked a few times. 'He was helpful… What the hell is going on here?!?!?' "Okay that's not right. There has to be something seriously wrong with him." 

"That's what I think." 

"Well then I think we should tell the others about it and find out what useful information we've gathered. So where is that book that with the amnesia information that Xellos handed you?" 

Amelia thought for a moment then lowered her head once she realized where the book was. 

"Well Amelia, where is it?" 

"Um well you see Miss Lina I had the book in my hand when I came into the room." 

"You don't mean…?" 

Amelia nodded and pointed to the big pile of books from the bookshelf that Amelia had crashed into. 

Lina facefaulted. 

~*~

Zelgadis who was in a different wing of the library was just leafing through different books aimlessly. He was trying to see if there were any of things he was reading that seemed familiar to him. So far he hadn't been really successful. The closest he had been was when he picked up a book about chimeras and felt a sense of déjà vu. But it was so much the book, it was the act of picking up the book and looking up information on chimeras. Besides that nothing was familiar, no even his 'friends'. There was still a part of Zelgadis was still didn't believe that the people that claimed to be his friends were really who they say they are. Zelgadis figured that if they were really his friends then he should at least feel a little bit of familiarity. But then the other part of Zelgadis rationalized that from what Lina told him, he wasn't a very friendly person to begin with. So even though he had friends he never really got close to them in a friend manner. He had always kept his distance. 'That's assuming that Lina was telling me the truth with that whole long story. But then what reason would she have to lie?' Zelgadis shook his head and went back to reading but a sudden wave of exhaustion over took him and he fell asleep in his chair. 

Xellos watched the slumbering ex-chimera from back in a corner in the room. 

~*~

Almost an hour later Lina decided to give up on trying to find that book that Amelia had about amnesia. Amelia couldn't remember what the book looked like because there was so many different books there and plus Amelia hadn't really looked at the cover of the book in the first place. 

"You know I wonder what Mr. Hender is going to say about his bookshelf." Lina grinned evilly with a little cackle. 

"Oh no! What is Mr. Hender going to say?" Amelia cried out in worry. 

Lina rolled her eyes. "I doubt Mr. Hender say much. Just as long as you apologize." 

"Why would Miss Amelia need to apologize to me for?" Mr. Hender asked coming up behind the two. 

"I'm sooooo sooorrry Mr. Hender! Didn't mean to break your bookshelf!" Amelia cried out. "Will you please forgive me?!" 

Mr. Hender frowned a bit and looked at the damage that had been done to the room. "Ah Miss Amelia, don't worry yourself too much about it. These bookshelves are old and aren't very sturdy anymore. I really should get them all replaced anyway." 

Amelia sighed in relief. 

Lina shook her head and turned to Mr. Hender. "I think now's a good time to get everyone back together to see what everyone found." 

Mr. Hender nodded in agreement and the three of them went off to go get the others. 


	29. An Odd Feeling part 29

An Odd Feeling

Part Twenty-nine

By Relm

~*~

Everyone gathered in one of the larger rooms of the library to if anyone found anything that would be helpful, but instead of the starting the discussion they were all left waiting for Zelgadis to show up. 

"Where the hell is he? We all agreed to meet up!" 

"Miss Lina, I'm sure that Mister Zelgadis is just a little caught up with what he was doing that he isn't aware of what time it is." Amelia tried to calm Lina. 

Lina just grumbled under her breath. 

"Well how about one of us goes and brings him here?" Sylphiel suggested to the group. 

"Fine, I'll go. I'll be back in a few minutes." Lina said while walking off. 

After a little bit of wandering around Lina finally found the room that Zelgadis had been looking up information in. She was all ready to give him hell when she saw him in his chair. She was shocked to see that he was asleep. 

Lina's first thought was about Zel's ex-demon part. Had he gone into Zelgadis' dreams and started causing hell? Or was Zelgadis just peacefully sleeping? 

Lina walked up to Zelgadis and saw that he seemed to be sleeping fine. She sighed with relief. 

"It's funny, I'd figure Gourry would be the more likely one to fall asleep in a library then Zelgadis." A voice stated from behind Lina. 

Lina spun herself around to see Xellos standing behind her with a smug smile. 

"Xellos! What are you doing here?" 

"What's so wrong about being in a library? Maybe I wanted to go and look up something I wanted to know." 

"You're a monster. There's probably nothing that you want to find out that you could find out here. Did you do something to Zelgadis?" Lina glared at Xellos with evil eyes. 

"Now why would you think that?" Xellos faked innocence. 

"I come in and find Zelgadis sleeping and you are here standing in the room watching him. You don't think that's suspicious enough?" 

"No, not at all." 

Lina shook her head. "Did you or did you not do something to him Xellos? I want a straight answer." 

"Well when I came in Zelgadis was asleep. And I have only been here for a few moments." 

Lina looked at him with a distrustful glare. "Of course I don't know if you are telling the truth or not." 

"Yeah I guess that's true. Well then I guess I shall be off now." Xellos gave her one last grin before phasing off to places unknown. 

Lina went over to Zelgadis and was half expecting him to already be awake from all the noise that her and Xellos were making, but she was surprised to see that he was still asleep. 'Man Zelgadis was always such a light sleeper before. But then he isn't a chimera before so his hearing isn't as acute as it is now.' 

Lina shook Zelgadis lightly and Zelgadis mumbled slightly in discomfort but continued to sleep. She shook him harder and Zelgadis continued to mumble but didn't wake up. Lina realized what she needed to do. 

"WAKE UP!!!!" 

Zelgadis woke up with a start. "AHH!! Huh?! What?!" 

"Hi Zel, did you have a nice nap?" Lina asked in a sweet innocent little girl voice. 

Zelgadis regarded her with a weird look. "Um yeah I guess. But did I really fall asleep?" 

"Yup. Oh well come on we've got to go meet the others." Lina pulled him off his chair and dragged him through the library. 

~*~

Xellos sighed. 'I guess I'm going to have to be a little more careful. They might be suspecting something already. I would have never thought trying to act like Xellos would be so hard…' Xellos shook his head pondering what to do next. 'At least I don't have to worry about him attacking Zelgadis in his sleep since now that he's with Lina. Hmm… but what am I going to do about that thing?' 

~*~

Lina dragged Zelgadis into the room everyone was in. "I found him!" Lina triumphantly stated as she went to take her seat. 

"Where was he Miss Lina?" 

"He fell asleep in one of the other rooms." 

Zelgadis glared at her with a little scowl as he went to join the others. "You just had to say something didn't you?" He mumbled under his breath. 

"Well actually it's not surprising that Mister Zelgadis suddenly fell asleep like that. His body is still trying to properly adjust to the changes that have been done. It's probably going to be a little while before his body is completely adjusted. So until then Mister Zelgadis should expect sudden waves of hunger, fatigue, and sleepiness." Mr. Hender reassured Zelgadis. 

"Well how about we get started? Did anyone find anything useful?" 

Everyone was silent. No one answered Lina. 

"You mean none of you found anything?" 

"Well I did find something… only I lost the book." Amelia spoke timidly. 

"Yeah well I already knew that. Sylphiel, Zelgadis, Gourry? Any of you?" 

"I wasn't really trying to find anything about memory loss. I was just trying to see if there was anything I could find that seemed familiar in anyway." 

"Was there anything?" 

"Just a sense of déjà vu when I picked up a book about chimera curses. But that's about it." 

"Not surprising. You've looked up tons of books about chimeras trying to find a cure for quite some time. What about you Gourry?" 

Gourry smiled sheepishly. "Well when I went to go and look up the stuff I was supposed to go look up I forgot exactly what it was that I was supposed to look up." 

Everyone sweatdropped. 

"Um Sylphiel?" 

"I'm sorry Miss Lina, I couldn't find anything useful." 

"Oh well I was suspecting as much. There's something else I wanted to talk to you guys about anyway." Lina cleared her throat before starting. "Now I bet we are all wondering who it was exactly that put up those strange dream barriers last night. From what I've seen before, the next day after the barrier in my room disappeared a new one was there in place of the other one. So therefore the same thing that put up the barriers last night will most likely put up new ones tonight in place of the ones that are gone. So Amelia, Sylphiel I want you to try and stay awake and try and see who it is that's putting up those barriers." 

"But Miss Lina what if the thing doesn't come if we are awake?" 

"That's why I want you two to pretend you are asleep." 

"But what if it doesn't show up?" 

"Oh well just try to stay up as long you can." 

~*~

Xellos sat on top of the rooftop of the library. He had been listening in on what Lina and the others had been talking about. 

'Hmm… now what am I going to do tonight? I can't very well go in and put up those barriers back up in this form. But I can't leave this form for very long either. I guess I'll just have to risk loosing control of him while I go and fix them up tonight. Hopefully he won't regain consciousness till I get back. It's too bad that I can't put these barriers up until they are in the room and it's nighttime. Oh well I guess I'd better get going to prepare for things later on.' Xellos phased off to places elsewhere but hadn't be aware that he been watched. 

Gar glared from his viewing point. 'How did that freak managed to get out? And there's something strange with him. Well when I get started with my plans that fruit cake is going to be one of the first ones to go.' Gar smiled evilly. 


	30. An Odd Feeling part 30

An Odd Feeling

Part Thirty

By Relm

~*~

There was one reason why Lina wanted everyone to meet up and have a discussion at a certain time. Because right afterwards Lina wanted to go and have lunch. But instead of going back to the inn to eat like they would normally do, Mr. Hender insisted that they stay and he make something to eat for everyone for lunch. 

"Are you really sure that you want do this? You do realize that you are going to need to make a lot of food. Do you even have that much?" 

"Yes Miss Lina, I am aware and I do have enough food. I just figure that it's pointless to go all the way back there and have to pay money when you can eat here for free considering I always have all this extra food usually anyway. And besides this way you can still continue researching while you eat. But if any of you would like to help with the cooking I wouldn't mind the help." 

Everyone looked to Sylphiel naturally and she gave a slight chuckle. "Sure Mr. Hender I can help you out." 

"Thank you Miss Sylphiel. So I guess we'd better get started on the food, since it's going to take awhile." 

"Well I guess we can get back to researching while we are waiting." Lina said right after Sylphiel and Mr. Hender went off to the kitchen. 

"What's the point? We'll just find nothing anyway." Zelgadis grumbled in a very discontented voice. 

"But Mister Zelgadis! You can't give up! If we don't keep trying and persevere then we wont be able to find away to get your memory back! We can't give up!" Amelia said before going straight into one of her standard justice speeches. 

Zelgadis leaned over to Lina. "She does this a lot doesn't she?" Zelgadis asked whispering. 

Lina nodded. "Yup. Gets it from her father." 

"Hey! You guys aren't listening to me!" Amelia cried out. 

"Anyway we need to get going and get back to work." Lina got up with Zelgadis and walked off despite Amelia's protests. 

Gourry just looked around the now empty room wondering what to do. He knew that he should follow Lina and go help out but he was hungry. 'I'm going to go see what Sylphiel and Mr. Hender are making.' And Gourry trotted off to the kitchen. 

~*~

Gar watched Zelgadis from outside the library. He made sure that none of the people inside could see him while he spied on them. 'Damn that little brat! She's purposely making it hard for me to do anything!' Gar glared at Lina from his vantage point. 'I wouldn't be surprised if it was her that has been causing me all these problems lately!' Gar thought about that for a few moments. 'Damnit! It probably was her! Oh that infuriating girl! I'm going to be so happy when I get rid of her for good!' He evilly grinned about the plans he had planned for Lina and everyone else. 'Now if I can just get my chance…' 

~*~

A little while later everyone was sitting in one of the more, larger rooms of the library finishing off their meal while they continued to research. Unfortunately they hadn't found anything useful still. 

"I bet we could look for weeks and we aren't going to find anything useful." Zelgadis put down the book he had just been looking at. 

"Yeah well it's either we continue looking or we give up on any other way to help get your memory back besides what we're already doing." 

"Which isn't helping much at all by the way." Zelgadis said while taking a swig of his coffee. He involuntary gagged. "BLEH! Yuck! Coffee isn't supposed to be this strong!" 

"But Mister Zelgadis that's how you used to like having it before." 

"And what the hell was I? A caffeine freak?" Zelgadis shook his head. "I swear the more I hear about 'myself' the more I have trouble believing that I am what you say I am." 

"Well I guess you could say that you were a really strange person, but we only knew you as a chimera. We have no clue what you acted like before when you were still human." 

Zelgadis gave Lina a sour look. "But still I sound way to weird to what you guys have told me." 

"And it will probably always sound weird till you get your memory back." 

"That is if I get my memory back." 

No one said anything to what Zelgadis said. Because they all knew that it was possible that he may never get his memory back that he may never again be the Zelgadis that they all knew. But one thing was for sure he was still depressing like when he was chimera. 

"Oh well if everyone is done I'll take the dishes back to the kitchen." Mr. Hender got up and went to get some of the dishes, but given on how many there were it was obvious that he was going to need to make more then one trip. "Would anyone be willing to help me take some of these in? Otherwise it's going to take me forever to take everything in." 

Both Sylphiel and Amelia volunteered and went to help Mr. Hender. 

~*~

For most of the day Lina and everyone else spent their time at the library looking up information. Lina had a very good reason for not wanting to leave the town just yet, but the others were starting to get suspicious on why they were still there. But Lina couldn't just come out and say that they were in danger because of Zel's ex-demon part that was now running amuck and on a murderous rampage. 

Once they were through with for the day they all went back to the inn for some much needed food and rest. Though the staff at the inn/restaurant still weren't terribly happy with them, they couldn't really eat once again at Mr. Hender's home/library. After cooking for the Mr. Hender didn't have an dishes left that were clean. 

"Now remember you two, I want you both when you go to bed tonight to pretending that you are sleeping. We need to know who or what is putting up those weird barriers." Lina instructed to both Sylphiel and Amelia after they had all finished their dinner and about ready to turn in for the night. 

"But Miss Lina why is it really so necessary to find out who it is? I mean whoever it is doing us a good deed by protecting our dreams, so doesn't that mean that this person is a good guy?" 

"It doesn't mater if they are protecting us, we don't know what it is. And damnit I want to find out who it is. How can someone get into our rooms without disturbing us? Don't you find that a little weird?" 

"Well yes-" 

"Then make sure you do what I told you to do. And make sure you can try to get a good look at the thing okay? Anyway I'm off to bed now! See you all in the morning!" Lina said waltzing off to her room. 

"Why does Miss Lina keep referring to the person as a 'thing'?" Amelia asked everyone but everyone else just shrugged. 

~*~

Rather then go to bed right away, Zelgadis stayed up sitting in inn's barroom. Basically he was reviewing over all the things that he had been told about himself and was trying to make sense of it all. He wasn't in the room alone; there was the bartender and a few sleeping drunks. The whole time he was there Zelgadis sat there nursing a glass of wine. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he lost track of time. He didn't realize how late it was till he noticed that the bar had been closed up and the bartender had left. The only other people left in the room now besides himself was the slumbering drunks. 'I guess it's a bit late, maybe I should go to bed now seeing how as Lina is probably going to wake me up tomorrow morning.' Zelgadis sighed as he got up and left the practically silent barroom. 

As Zelgadis walked through the halls of the inn that he and the others where staying at, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched. He kept looking behind and around him, but no matter how many times he looked, Zelgadis never saw anyone. He shook his head in disappointment as he approached the door his room. 'Get a grip on yourself. Man, why am I feeling so paranoid all of sudden? This isn't like me.' Then Zelgadis paused on that thought. 'Isn't like me? Hell I don't even know what is like me.' Zelgadis sighed in annoyance as he put his key into the door lock. He was just about to turn the key when he felt a sudden draft by his ear. Zelgadis tilted his head to the right to see when everything suddenly went black. 


	31. An Odd Feeling part 31

An Odd Feeling

Part Thirty-one

By Relm

~*~

Amelia yawned while laying her bed pretending to sleep. She had been in her nice warm and comfy bed for hours now feeling very tired but not able to sleep. No she promised Lina that she would stay up as long as she possibly could in order to get a glimpse of this mystery creature that has been putting up these dream barriers. Amelia was mentally cursing even agreeing to this at all. Not only was she really wanting to sleep very badly, she was also bored out of her mind. She had been lying there for hours doing absolutely nothing. It wasn't as if she could take a book and start to read or do something else to pass the time, she had to pretend that she was sleeping. 

What was making this the hardest thing off all was that Amelia had to keep her eyes partially closed. There was very little stopping her from closing her eyes completely and just doze off. 

'Maybe if I just close my eyes for a few minutes I'll be okay. It's not like I'm going to fall asleep or anything. I'll be able to stay awake.' Amelia assured herself that before she closed her eyes and drifted right off into sleep. 

~*~

In Sylphiel's room Sylphiel was awake thinking rather then sleeping. She wasn't having as much trouble as Amelia was because she wasn't even really tried herself. Sylphiel thinking about when she first been summoned to come to this little town to try and help out Zelgadis. She had been traveling in hopes to completely forget about Gourry. For so long Gourry had been stuck in her mind and she decided that had to finally forget about him and officially get on with her life. So Sylphiel had decided to try and do a little traveling on her own to see if that would help. And luck have it she just happens to travel into a town where she gets the message about Lina and the others needing her help. 

A part of Sylphiel reminded her that going to help them was retreating back to what she trying to avoid. Going back to thinking about Gourry and thinking about how she still felt about him. Sylphiel had no idea if she even had the slightest chance with him. He had made it quite clear in the past that thought a lot of Lina, but whether or not he truly had feelings for her was another thing. 

So Sylphiel was almost hesitant to not go for that reason. Would she really want to go through all that again only to be disappointed again? But then another part of Sylphiel reminded her that she was asked to help because of Zelgadis. So with that in mind she left very quickly. But now she was left contemplating on where she stood at this point and where she should go from here? 

Sylphiel was so absorbed in her thoughts that she almost didn't notice the thing that had entered her room. Once she noticed that she wasn't alone her room Sylphiel immediately tensed up. She calmed herself down and tried to peer over to where the 'thing' was and to her surprise she didn't see anything. There was nothing standing there in front of her. But Sylphiel was very aware that there was something in there with her. She could clearly hear it very well. And she could even see some of the stones it was placing on the floor of her room around her bed. 

Sylphiel strained her ears as the invisible entity placed stones. She could hear only very faint whispering that she couldn't make out at all. 

Immediately after all the stones where placed there was a blinding flash of light. Sylphiel blinked involuntarily. She would have gotten up quickly to go and wake Lina and tell her what just happened if she had not gotten this sudden wave of sleepiness that made her fall to sleep right away. 

~*~

The creature almost chuckled as it left Sylphiel's room. It was very aware that Sylphiel was awake and trying to get a chance to view the person that had been putting up those dream barriers. But the creature knew that Sylphiel wasn't going to be able to see anything. So that's why it wasn't afraid, nor was it afraid to repeat the same thing with Amelia. Of course if it hadn't put that sleeping spell on Sylphiel then the creature might have been a little worried. Because if Sylphiel was still awake she could have gone and woke up Lina and then Lina might have gone into Amelia's room while the creature was still putting up the barrier in her room and realize what exactly it was. 

So that's why the creature was being cautious. It still wasn't sure if Lina would be able to see it. Chances are she wouldn't, but the creature didn't want to take any chances. 

It crept quietly into Amelia's room. The creature was aware that Amelia would be doing the same thing as Sylphiel had done. Pretend to be asleep so that she might be able to get a quick glimpse of the creature. But as the creature crept closer to the bed it almost chuckled out loud. Instead of pretending to sleep, Amelia really was sleeping. 'Guess she couldn't stay awake that long.' The creature mentally mused. It had figured that it would be easier if it waited a few hours rather then go in right away. 

The creature put the stones around Amelia's bed and chanted the dream barrier spell very quietly under it's breath. The same flash of light lit the room and all was taken care of so the creature left the Sailune princess' room and headed back to where he had Xellos stashed away. 

~*~

The next morning Lina woke up from a very peaceful sleep. She stretched and marveled about the day outside of her window. It was a very clear day out with the sunshine pouring down on her and birds were singing. It was close to the afternoon and Lina figured that she was probably one of the last people awake in the inn. Then something hit her. Neither Sylphiel nor Amelia had come to her last night. And they were supposed to go and wake her up if they saw anything. 

Lina grumbled as she stormed off down the hall heading straight for Amelia's room. Lina glared at the sight that was before her. There lay Amelia peacefully sleeping in her bed without a care in the world. She walked right up to Amelia and first gently shook the slumbering princess. Amelia only mumbled in return still in the midst of her slumber. Lina evilly grinned right before she took a very deep breath. 

"WAKE UP!!!!!" Lina screamed at the top of her lungs. 

Amelia screamed and almost jumping out of her bed. "AHHHHHH!!! What the?!" 

"Good morning Amelia, did you sleep well?" Lina said in a fake and sickeningly sweet tone of voice. 

"Um yes… Is there something wrong Miss Lina? Did you sleep well?" Amelia asked in a very sheepish voice. 

"Yes I did sleep well, that's the problem! You and Sylphiel were supposed to come see me once that thing came into your rooms and put new dream barriers! But I didn't get anyone coming and seeing me at all! So would you like to explain exactly why that is?! Hmm?!" 

At this point Amelia dared to look down on the floor around her bed. Just like the previous morning there lay small round smooth stones surrounding her bed in a perfect circle. "I'm sorry Miss Lina! I didn't mean to fall asleep, honestly! I just closed my eyes for a second and I guess I must have fallen asleep right after that." 

"You guess?!" Lina bonked Amelia on the head. "Oh well there's nothing we can do about this now. I guess I'd better go find out Sylphiel's reason." Lina sighed and left for Sylphiel's room leaving Amelia alone rubbing the now tender spot on her head. 

Once Lina went into Sylphiel's room she again was greeted with the sight of someone sleeping. There like Amelia, Sylphiel slept on her bed. Lina was going to go over to Sylphiel and give her similar treatment as she had given Amelia when she felt the residual magic essence that lingered after a spell. 

'Someone purposely put Sylphiel to sleep with a sleep spell.' Lina walked right over to Sylphiel and dispelled the sleep spell that had been put on her. 

Immediately Sylphiel's eyes started to flutter and she woke up with a start. "I have to go see Miss Lina!" 

"Good know that there's still people I can count on to get jobs done." Lina said with a chuckle. 

"Miss Lina? What are you doing in my room? And what time is it?" 

"It's morning, or nearly afternoon I guess." 

"Afternoon? That thing must have put me to sleep once it finished the barrier." 

Lina's ear's perked up. "What thing? So you saw it?" 

"Well not exactly." 

"What do you mean not exactly?! Did you or didn't you see it?!" 

"This is what happened. I heard the thing come in my room, but when I looked I couldn't see anything. There was nothing visible in front of me at all. But I could see the stones being placed on the ground, I just couldn't see him putting down the stones." 

"Him?" Lina prompted. 

"Well I didn't see who it was doing it because I believe that he had a invisibility spell or something but I know it was a he." 

"How?" 

"When he was placing the stones down I hear him whisper things under his breath presumably the words for the incantation of the dream barrier. Though I couldn't make out exactly what he was saying I know for sure that it was a guy speaking." 

Lina flopped down on Sylphiel's bed. 'Invisible huh? Great… But then if he's invisible then what did Zel see?' "What else happened after that?" 

"There was this big flash of light and then the creature was gone. I was going to get up and wake you when I suddenly felt this wave of sleepiness and I must have fallen asleep after that." 

"Oh well I'm hungry let's go get some food!" 

~*~

Once Lina, Sylphiel and Amelia got downstairs they noticed that Zelgadis was already up and had already finished his breakfast. 

"Well looks like you are getting back into your early morning routine." Lina commented as she took a seat next to him. 

"Yeah I guess." Zelgadis said in a strange voice giving her a weird look. 

If Lina had not been as hungry as she was then maybe she would noticed that but instead she grabbed a menu and started ranting off her order for the waitress. 

"I think I'll go back to my room for now till you guys are ready later to go the library." Zelgadis said while getting up and pushed his chair. 

"Yeah whatever, see you later." Lina said in a rushed manor and went straight back into her large breakfast order that still hadn't finished reading out. 

Zelgadis smiled evilly as he walked away from the three girls. On his way out of the restaurant area he passed Xellos who was just coming in. Immediately once the two of them passed by each other they paused giving each other glares. Then both looked away and continued walking in their different directions. 


	32. An Odd Feeling part 32

An Odd Feeling

Part Thirty-two

By Relm

~*~

Lina had a strange sense of being watched as her and the others made their way over to the town library. Her eyes madly darted around to find the source of her uneasiness but found none. Everywhere she looked around her all she saw was the normal comings and goings of the townspeople. There didn't seem to be any malicious beings within at least a three-block radius. Everything was peaceful and normal in the quiet town. 

Lina mentally scolded herself on her paranoia. Though it was true that she have a good reason to be a little jumpy, but it still annoyed her. 

'I doubt that crazed demon creature would attack us in a group, in the middle of a busy town street, in the broad daylight. So then why the hell am I so nervous?! Of course there is 'that' that I have to worry about.' Lina mentally cursed that thought. Not having her magic abilities around a time like this was both frustrating and dangerous. 'Just a few more days to go…' 

At the back of the group, Zelgadis smiled an evil little grin. 

~*~

Xellos watched from his vantage point high a top a house rooftop in both curiosity and concern as the group trekked over to the library to meet Mr. Hender. He could distinctly detect Lina's uneasiness and paranoia. But that wasn't what worried him. What did was the strange odd things he was sensing from Zelgadis. It was both a combination of fear, confusion, anger, and resentment and evil sort of satisfaction. And the strangest part about the conflicting emotions was that thought very separated, they were all faint. Like as if Zelgadis himself was purposely making it harder for Xellos to sense his emotions. 

Xellos wondered on what was the source of those random emotions. Resurfacing memories perhaps? Xellos wasn't sure. What he was sure about was that the look Zelgadis was giving Lina was strange and most out of character for Zelgadis. Usually the ex-chimera kept up a stony stoic expression of indifference. But the one he bore now was a combination of assorted things twisted in that seemingly evil stare. Of course Xellos rationalized that since Zelgadis was lacking his memory that it would be doubtful that he would retain any of his usual personality and behavioral quirks. But still, based on what Xellos observed of Zelgadis after he had came out of the machine with amnesia, even this seemed a little odd. 

'Now what could he have remembered that would change his personality so quickly?' Xellos mused. 

~*~

Zelgadis stared at the book in front of him with a bored expression. It was a very large book on ancient culture lore. A sea of words lay before him and he blindly stared at them without reading a word of it. Zelgadis' mind was elsewhere, plotting and planning. He gave a sideways glance to his right. His lips turned up slightly in an evil mischievous grin as his eyes fell upon the petite form of Lina Inverse. 

Lina was totally unaware of what was going on around her. She was too absorbed with the pile of books that she had before her. 

Zelgadis averted his eyes back to his book and idly turned another page in the attempt of pretending to read. He continued to mentally calculate the best options he had in front of him. 

Xellos phased into the fair sized library, in the same room as everyone and took a seat next to Lina. 

Lina who had been too preoccupied to notice, didn't say or do anything until a gloved hand reached for one of the books in front of her. Immediately she smashed the book in her hands on the offending glove. 

Xellos recoiled his hand and gave Lina a hurt face. "Ne, Lina you're so mean." 

"And what the hell are you doing here for?!" Lina demanded. 

"Why do you always have to question me on where I choose to go?" 

"I asked first." 

"It's a secret." 

Lina rolled her eyes at the expected answer. It was obvious that Xellos was going to be his usual difficult self and not give out any information, no matter how pointless the information was. But that wasn't going to stop Lina from trying. "Why were you reaching for one of my books for?" 

"You never answered my question." 

"Neither did you." 

"I just wanted to see some of the things you were reading." 

Lina regarded Xellos with suspicion, but then ignored him and went back to her reading. She didn't have time to deal with the bothersome trickster priest. There was other more trying things to worry about. 

Xellos looked around the others in the room. To his left he saw Zelgadis brooding over a book he was reading. Amelia sat next to him on his left in a similar fashion. Sylphiel sat across from them taking notes as she read. And Gourry sitting next to her was busy sleeping on one of the books he had been looking at. Mr. Hender wasn't in the room. He was in another part of the library probably doing much of the same as everyone (minus Gourry). 

It was then that Xellos noticed that they weren't the only ones using the library. There was a lanky, bird-faced guy with large owl rimmed glasses sitting by himself, far away in a corner. He seemed to have a stressed and worried expression on his face as he poured over nervously through his book on hand. It was obvious that either he was nervous from one of Lina's acts of violence or Lina had already said 'something' to him prior. Oh well it was a public library after all so there would be others using it besides them. Though judging on how many people who have come by in the past week or two it was obvious that the library wasn't used often by the public. 

Gourry occasionally mumbled in his sleep as everyone sat in the room reading. Other then that only the soft rustlings of turning pages were the only sounds in the silent room. A silence, which was broken by the sudden joyful cheer of Popo who had just appeared in the room. 

"Pwadado!" 

Everyone in the room collectively fell out of their chairs. 

Popo glanced around at everyone in the room in curiosity. Then he shrugged it off and decided to float around the room to see what everyone was doing. Unfortunately for Popo, he decided to float over to the wrong person. 

The guy in the corner glared at the floating spiky blue ball creature as it floated towards. The guy's reaction? He screamed and ran out of the library in a frantic manor. 

"What was that about?" Mr. Hender asked coming into the room with a book and a mug of coffee in his hands. 

Lina shrugged and Popo just floated around with an innocent but seemingly evil grin. 

Mr. Hender raised an eyebrow at Popo. "Alright, what did Popo do?" 

"Nothing. Maybe that guy has never seen a blue floating spiky thing before." Amelia suggested. 

Popo snorted in discontent at being referred to as a 'thing'. 

"So has anyone gotten anywhere with the reading?" Mr. Hender asked while sitting down. 

The room was silent. "Really? No one at all?" Mr. Hender prompted again, but still no one answered. Mr. Hender sighed. "This might sound unbelievable, but I did some checking on all the books we've gone through so far. And from what I can see, we've pretty much have gone through all the books in this library on the subject at hand." 

"Oh come on there's got to be more then this." Lina exclaimed rolling her eyes. 

"Well maybe there's a few that I don't know about, or some that might have been placed on wrong shelves by previous library visitors. But as you may have noticed, this library doesn't get that many visitors too often." 

Everyone was silent for a little while. 

"How is the library in the next town?" Amelia asked Mr. Hender. 

"What do you mean Miss Amelia?" 

"Well if we've try everything we can in this town, then why don't we go on to the next? Isn't that what Mister Zelgadis did anyway when he was searching for a cure? If one town didn't have anything that helped, then he just went on to the next town. Shouldn't we do that? Maybe the next town could have something that could help." 

Lina and Mr. Hender exchanged worried looks. They both knew that finding a way to cure Zelgadis' amnesia could be something that they could find in another town. That wasn't the problem that was keeping Lina and the others there. 

Before Lina or Mr. Hender could suggest a reason why they should still stay in town Zelgadis cut in. "Given what I have been through, I doubt it would be a good idea for me to go traveling so soon. I still haven't had a chance to completely regain all my strength yet. I'd prefer to stay in town for a little while longer till I've recovered a little more." 

Lina almost sighed in relief. 'Good going Zel.' "Yes I think it would be better to stay longer too." 

Mr. Hender nodded with agreement and Amelia frowned. "I guess so… Hey what about that book I had before? You know the one I lost in the large pile when I um… broke that shelve?" 

Now it was Mr. Hender's turn to frown. "Well after that incident I tried to look for that book with the description that you gave me. In fact that was what I was just doing before I came in here. But out of all those books I couldn't find the one that you had. It seems to have gone missing." 

Lina mentally cursed. She had a pretty good idea on how that book was missing. "Have you checked everywhere in the room?" 

"Yes and I made sure to go through each book to make sure that I didn't miss it, but the pile it should have been in was all cooking books. And it wasn't in the room at all." 

"But how could it go missing? It should have been in the room!" Amelia protested. 

"I don't know how it could have, but it did." 

Amelia pouted. 

"Oh that's too bad. And to think Amelia searched so hard for that book." Xellos stated in a mock apologetic tone. 

Amelia glared at him and Xellos smiled and phased out of the library. 

Lina's brow creased in thought. She knew Xellos had been acting strange lately but she hadn't really thought about it too hard lately. But now that she thought about it, a disturbing thought came to mind. 'I'm going to have to talk to Mr. Hender about that later.' 

~*~

Xellos phased out of the library and back onto the town streets. He had wanted to try and find the demon to see what he was up to. But for some strange reason Xellos was having trouble trying to find the demonic creature. 'Perhaps this might be one disadvantage to taking over this form, I lack my abilities to detect my former counterparts. But I guess considering all the advantages I do get it's not so bad. I never realized the fruitcake was able to do this much. If I had known before I would have taken over his body as soon as I was separated from the others. But this is bad if I can't find that bad tempered demon.' Xellos phased about a couple of different places, but everywhere he looked he couldn't find him. 'You think being able to sense intense emotions that I would be able to find him with no problem.' Xellos mused. 

The case was Xellos wasn't sensing any strong waves of anger coming from anywhere. It boggled Xellos' mind. 'Where the hell is he?' 

~*~

Zelgadis grinned as he walked outside the town library. He had told everyone that he wanted to get some air. Lina had been reluctant to let him go, but he managed to convince her. 

The town was busy as usual so Zelgadis walked over to a more secluded area. Once he was an area where he knew he could not been seen he disappeared and reappeared in another area. 

Zelgadis almost gleefully laughed once he used this power. He had been totally unaware that he had this sort of power. But then again it wasn't without repercussions. Zelgadis felt a sudden wave of tiredness. 'His powers must be really taxing to use. I can't believe that he had no idea he had these powers this whole time.' Zelgadis almost chuckled out loud, but he suppressed it. He didn't want to alert the monster in front of him that he was there. Zelgadis' grin turned evil. 


	33. An Odd Feeling part 33

An Odd Feeling

Part Thirty-three

By Relm

~*~

Once Zelgadis had gone outside for some fresh air and everyone had gone back to researching, Lina pulled Mr. Hender into a different room to talk. 

"Well I have to say that was a close one with Miss Amelia. Thankfully Mister Zelgadis came up with that excuse to not leave town. Otherwise we'd be in trouble." Mr. Hender observed. 

"Yeah keeping yourself guarded and safe while your staying a town is much easier then protecting yourself on the road." Lina said with a frown. 

"Is something wrong? Or least is there something new that is wrong besides what already is?" 

"I'm actually not too sure right now…" Lina's voice trailed off while in thought. 

"What is it Miss Lina?" 

"Well you know that Xellos has been acting a little on the odd side for a little while after he reappeared after being gone for a period of time." 

"Yes, but isn't that guy always odd?" 

Lina shook her head. "That's not what I meant. He's been acting more strangely then normal." 

"Like what?" 

"Well actually directing answering a question instead of bating people with only a tidbit of information. Being helpful instead of being vague. And just generally the way he's been acting. The way he talks and presents himself without his usual cocky and playfully mischievousness. The only thing that hasn't changed about him is that he's still annoying." 

"Hmmm… I guess that would be considered strange, but I haven't known him that long. But what if he is? What are you getting at?" 

Lina paused for a moment in thought. "Well I was just thinking… I know that demons are able to possess humans, but can they possess monsters as well?" 

"You think Mister Xellos might be being controlled by Mister Zelgadis' ex-demon part?" Mr. Hender asked shocked. 

"Well it makes sense doesn't it?" 

"Oh the ramifications of that would be terrible. A bloodthirsty demon such as this controlling a very power monster, and a monster lord's priest at that. If this is the case then not only would the demon have complete control over Mister Xellos' actions, but all of his powers as well." 

Lina frowned. She had hoped that Mr. Hender could prove her otherwise on the likeliness of a demon being able to take over a monster. Instead this just confirmed her fear. "But wouldn't a powerful monster be able to resist control like that? It seems a little weird that Xellos would be able to be taken over so easily." 

"Don't forget this demon may very well be invisible to everyone but you. Chances are Mister Xellos didn't seem what was coming till it was too late. That is, if he is in fact possessed. Are you certain that he could be?" 

"I'd like to say that I'm certain that he isn't… but no I'm not sure if he is or not. But if Xellos is being possessed, then I might have to say something to Zelgadis after all…" 

Mr. Hender raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps it would be a better idea if we just told them all anyway." 

"We can't. It's not a good idea to openly discus this even if they don't freak out. We don't know if that demon is watching everything we do, and if he's possessed Xellos then that makes it ten times worse. With Xellos' powers that demon could do a lot of damage. And if it finds out that everyone knows about it, it might get drastic. And what if I'm wrong? What if Xellos isn't being possessed by the demon? That demon could have possessed any one of us by now. How are we supposed to know whose acting upon their own actions and whose not?" 

"I suppose you have a point." Mr. Hender said with a deadpan face. "But if the demon has possessed Mister Xellos, then why hasn't he done anything since Zelgadis got out of the koppi machine?" 

"Well what we do know is that the demon primarily attacks people in their dreams. So I guess whoever has put up those dream barriers has protected us from those attacks." Lina frowned. That was another mystery that lay before her. Who was it that kept putting up those damn barriers? And why would that person or thing be helping them? She was no closer to solving that then she was at trying to figure out her problem with Zel's ex-demon. "As for attacks using other people's bodies, well maybe it's waiting for something. It might be planning something bad that can only be done at a certain time. Or maybe it's gathering power for something that requires time to conjure up. The demon might have only just recently acquired a body and hasn't had the chance to do anything yet. But then there's also the chance that maybe it hasn't possessed a body. Like perhaps without a physical form it doesn't have the power to do that." 

"I'm afraid that it does definitely have the ability to posses a person. In fact in this respect it's actually easier for a demon of this type to control someone. Normally it would have to use its physical strength to control a person from a set location. And the demon would need lots of mental control to keep their hold on the person they possess. But in this case, the demon has no physical body so it can actually enter a person's body and control them from the inside. Now for other types of demons they would control people in a different way, that's provided if it's a demon with the ability to possess people." 

"But this is the case with this type of demon." 

"Exactly." 

"So how do we attack something with no physical form to touch?" Lina already had a few ideas in her head, but unfortunately they weren't exactly the best ideas on dealing with this thing. 

"The only way we could even hurt it would be on the astral plane like any other demon or monster. Though given the type of demon he is tracking his astral body is going to be difficult. But this might make it even more harder to directly attack the demon if it's possessing someone." 

"Yeah it might end up hurting the person and not the demon that's possessed them. Is there anyway to dispel the demon from the person it's possessing?" 

"You mean exorcism? Yes it is possible, but only if you are a hundred percent sure on whose being possessed. But like attacking the demon on the astral plain-" 

"We're still putting the person at risk." 

"Unfortunately so." 

Lina sighed in annoyance. It seemed hopeless, they'd be putting someone's life at risk even if they knew who was being possessed. "What about using a sword of light? What if we tried to use that to dispel the demon?" 

"You have a sword of light?!" Mr. Hender said in a very shocked voice and stared at her with wide eyes. 

"I don't, but Gourry does. He's a descendant of the famous swordsman of light that slew the demon beast Zanifar though he sure as hell doesn't look it. But can the sword be used to dispel the demon without hurting the person he's possessing?" Lina asked impatiently. 

"Well for this type of demon unfortunately-" 

"It will." 

"Yes. You'd have to strike the person because the demon would be imbedded so well with the person possessed." 

"Damnit this is so irritating!!!" Lina fumed. "So is there anyway at all?!" 

"Well I didn't know before that you had a sword of light before, so maybe we can still use that to our advantage." Mr. Hender pulled out a few books that he had in box. Every somewhat useful book Mr. Hender had found had been placed in this box. He was intending to keep everything useful he found in one place incase something new such as this came up. 

Lina groaned. "Don't tell me…" 

"More researching." 

Lina facefaulted. 

~*~

Zelgadis was actually quite surprised that Xellos hadn't noticed that there was someone behind him. 

'Don't monsters have a natural detection for sensing people or is Xellos just loosing his touch?' Zelgadis thought with a twisted grin. He knew the reason why Xellos couldn't detect him. But of course Zelgadis was not invisible nor would Xellos not be able to hear him if he made a noise, so Zelgadis remained in his stealthy position. He mentally calculated on what to do. Though the urge to off Xellos right then was very strong, Zelgadis refrained from doing so. It would be too easy for him if he just got rid of Xellos so quickly. And besides Zelgadis wanted him to suffer in extreme torture before his untimely demise. 

So again every bone in his body, Zelgadis left Xellos alone… for now. 

'Even if I can't kill him right now I'd better make sure that he wont interfere with my plans. But what to do to him…?' 

Zelgadis held out his palm and a triangular dark green crystal appeared in his hand. 'Hopefully this one will be more effective then the last one.' 

Just as Zelgadis thought this, Xellos turned around to look behind him. Their gazes met for less then a second. But it was long enough for Xellos to catch sight of Zelgadis' evil mischievous grin, and long enough for Zelgadis to trap Xellos in his crystal. 

Zelgadis let loose the malicious laughter he had been suppressing. 

"Now lets see you weasel your way out of that one!" Zelgadis dared the green crystal even though he was well aware that Xellos couldn't hear him. 

Figuring that he'd been out long enough, Zelgadis appeared back near the library. 

~*~

Inside the little green crystal he was trapped in, Xellos cursed out loud. 

"AHHH!!!! WHY THAT LITTLE BASTARD!!! That damn creature took over his body!!! I can't believe I didn't even realize it before!!!! Well believe me, I was able to break out o the last one, I'll get out of this one too!!" Xellos yelled freely hoping that Zelgadis would be able to hear him. But alas, it was futile. One of the differences besides that it was stronger and harder to get out of, this crystal was soundproof whereas the other one wasn't. 

~*~

Lina had a dreadful thought as she went outside to look for Zelgadis. Knowing of the possibility of Xellos' possession Lina was aware that Zelgadis was in danger by himself. 

She had made the decision to finally tell Zelgadis about his ex-demon part running amuck on a possible killing spree. 

Lina almost bumped right into Zelgadis as she a corner. 

"Oh Zelgadis there you are!" 

"What's wrong Lina?" Zelgadis asked with a slightly raised eyebrow. 

"Well have you seen Xellos around?" 

"No I haven't seen that fruitcake around at all." Zelgadis lied. 

"Good. Zel come with me, I need to talk to you about something." 

Lina led Zelgadis to a secluded area behind the library. She eyed her surrounding to make sure that they were alone. "Okay I think we're safe. Zel do you remember what we told you about your chimera form? That you used to part human, golem and demon?" 

"Yes I remember." 

"Well you know how we said that you separated from your chimera form into a spirit like and then your chimera physical body disappeared? Well your demon part didn't disappear along with the chimera body. It remained in spirit form like you were." 

Zelgadis faked shock. "What? How is that possible? And why didn't you say anything before?" 

"Because I was afraid of causing a panic, and the demon is hostile and I didn't want to risk telling anyone so as not to provoke it to do anything." 

"Okay, sounds logical. But why are you telling me now?" 

"Because I believe that we might be in more danger then before." Lina said very darkly. "I believe that the demon might have taken possession over someone…" 

Zelgadis mentally gulped. 'She doesn't know… does she…?' He didn't say anything, but continued to stare at Lina waiting for her to speak. 

"I believe it has taken possession of Xellos." 

If Zelgadis didn't have iron control he would have laughed out loud hysterically. 'Oh this is too perfect!' In amidst his mentally cackling he realized that Lina was waiting for a response from him. "Are you sure?" 

"No I'm not, but he's been acting extremely strange lately, not like Xellos at all." 

Zelgadis nodded in agreement. He had noticed too that Xellos was acting differently from usual. "So what do we do? If the fruitcake is being controlled by that thing shouldn't we do something to stop it?" 

"Well Mr. Hender and I are trying to find a way to stop him. But so far all we've managed to come up with are things that would hurt the person being possessed along with the demon." 

"Maybe if all three of us get to work maybe we can come up with something helpful." Zelgadis suggested as they walked back into the library. 

"Okay we'll start in this room." Lina sat herself down at one of the tables. 

Zelgadis looked around the room and noted that the librarian was nowhere to be seen. "Where's Mr. Hender?" 

"He's in another room, we'll catch up with him later after a little while." Lina said already leafing through a book. 

"So we'll be alone then?" 

"Uh-huh." Lina responded barely listening. 

'Perfect.' Zelgadis' stoic mask crumbled to reveal a dark evil grin. 


	34. An Odd Feeling part 34

An Odd Feeling

Part Thirty-four

By Relm

~*~

Zelgadis frowned at the books in front of him. "So why exactly are we trying so hard to find a way to deal with the creature without hurting the person he's possessed when it's Xellos who he's possessing? Why does it matter if we hurt him or not?" 

"First of all we don't know if the demon has possessed Xellos. It might have possessed someone else and in that case we'd still need to know how to deal with it without hurting someone. Second as much as I wouldn't mind hurting Xellos along with it, if we fail the demon might get really pissed off and use Xellos' body to its' advantage. And if we do succeed we don't know how Xellos might act. He might end up being very dangerous if we did get rid of the demon and hurting him in the process. He's a monster, and we really don't have any idea what goes on in his mind, what his orders might be, what his true intensions are." Lina spoke without even looking up from her book. "We don't know, maybe he's been planning on killing us off for a while now, and all he needs is a reason to." 

"Well if that's the case then who cares if we hurt him or not. We might as well just kill them both." 

This time Lina looked up. She stared at him with a confused glance but Zelgadis wasn't looking up to meet her gaze. 'I know Zel hates Xellos, but he wouldn't usually say something like that. But then Zel's been acting strangely ever since he got out of the machine anyway. Probably because he can't remember anything.' "Um well it's not a good idea to kill a monster lord's general priest. Monster's can be very possessive over things that belong to them. Especially if that monster happens to be a monster lord." 

Zelgadis pouted. 

~*~

Xellos paced around in his green prison. He was very frustrated with his current situation. This was definitely a lot more different then the last crystal cage. It was much more solid and it had an anti-magic barrier that lined the inside of the crystal so there was no way that Xellos would be able to break the crystal with normal magic. But that's not saying that he wouldn't be able to break it at all. 

'All I need to do is to make a crack in the structure somehow and then I can get out. But why trap us rather then try to kill Xellos? It doesn't make much sense. I'm a bigger threat to him like this is if I can get out.' Xellos mused in confusion. And then it hit him. 

'He doesn't know. He has no idea that I'm controlling Xellos. He probably doesn't even know that I exist. Well if that's the case then I have an advantage over him.' Xellos laughed sinisterly. 'But I still need to get out of here first.' 

~*~

Lina sighed and closed the book she was reading. It wasn't any help as she had expected. Lina was started to get annoyed with constantly trying to find information that didn't seem to exist. 

She got up from her chair and went to the door. 

"Where are you going?" 

"I'm going to get something to help us. I'll be back in a few minutes." 

Lina left the room and went on the search for Gourry. After a little bit of searching Lina found Gourry with his face buried in the book that he was sleeping on. 

"Hey Gourry wake up!" Lina yelled in his ear giving his shoulders a shake. But Gourry didn't wake up. He just grumbled slightly in his sleep. So Lina did the next best thing, she kicked his chair out from under him. 

Gourry woke up as he went crashing down to the floor. "Huh...? Why am I on the floor…?" 

"Because I woke you up. Now give me your sword Gourry." Lina demanded matter-of-factly holding out her hand. 

"No! I told you once, and I told you a hundred of times, I didn't say you could have the sword! Am I'm not going to give it to you! It's a family heirloom." Gourry said defensively clutching his sword. 

"I know, I know Gourry. But I just want to borrow it for a little while. So handing it over, I'll give it back to you." 

"And how do I know that you aren't just going to borrow it and not give it back to me?" Gourry narrowed his eyes suspiciously at her. 

"I just want to borrow it to see if I can help Zel. Do you want Zelgadis to get his memory back?" 

"Yes…" 

"Well then just let me borrow the damn sword Gourry!" Lina demanded. 

Gourry reluctantly handed his sword to her. "You know you're scary when you want something." 

Gourry got smacked on the head with his sword for his comment. 

~*~

While Lina was gone Zelgadis quickly got up and went to the all the edges of the room. With soft chanting Zelgadis placed small stones at each of the corners of the room on the floor as close to the wall as possible. Immediately after he placed the stones on the floor they glowed softly in resonance with each other creating a light pattern all across the room that somewhat resembled a large magic square. Only it wasn't one and it was missing one line that was supposed to connect to the door that Lina had gone out of. In front of the door there was a stone as well but this one wasn't glowing with the rest of them. 

Zelgadis quickly sat down where he was before; picked up the book he had been reading and waited for Lina to return. Just then Lina opened the door and the stone started to glow completing the pattern and as she stepped into the room the magic square like thing disappeared. 

Lina didn't notice the light pattern on the floor before it disappeared and walked over to Zelgadis placing Gourry's swords right in front on him. 

"Gourry's sword?" 

"Yeah I had a talk with Mr. Hender and according to him we might be able to use it to help us." 

"Really…" Zelgadis raised an eyebrow. 

~*~

Inside the green crystal Xellos was putting the prison's magic barrier to the limit. What he was doing was using his raw energy to make a magic barrier around him and expanded it till it was up against the prison's barrier. The friction of the barriers going angst each other created lots of sparks. Xellos' barrier pushing outward while the crystal's barrier stressed to stay up. But with no one feeding extra power into the crystal's magic barrier it immediately cracked shooting Xellos' energy right at the crystal shell. Which caused a small crack in the crystal. 

Once achieving this Xellos stopped right away. He stopped and waited for a few moments. But nothing happened. He was afraid that Zelgadis was going to realize that what Xellos was doing. But since nothing happened Xellos took this as an opportunity to escape. 

Xellos teleported himself out of the crystal all ready to fend himself from Zelgadis but he was surprised to see that he materialized outside in a hallway rather then in the same room as Zelgadis. 'Now what the hell happened here? I should have appeared right where Zelgadis is since he has the crystal. Unless the crystal is somewhere out here…' 

Xellos looked around the hallway and the crystal was nowhere in sight. But then something hit Xellos, he couldn't sense either Lina or Zelgadis. 

He quickly appeared right where Mr. Hender was. "Mr. Hender, where's Lina?" 

"Um I don't know Mister Xellos." 

"This isn't good…" 

"Is there something wrong?" 

"There might be. Come with me." Xellos grabbed Mr. Hender's arm and went and gathered everyone into one room. 

"Where's Lina?" Xellos demanded from everyone. 

No one was able to answer him. 

"Come on, none of you saw her at all recently?" 

Gourry thought very hard. "Oh I did! She wanted to borrow my sword." 

"Why?" 

"She said she wanted to borrow it so that she can help Zelgadis and then she left." 

"Where did she go?" 

"I think she went somewhere down that hall." Gourry pointed towards the hallway that Xellos had come from. 

Without even saying a word Xellos sped off right towards the room he had appeared right in front. He felt a faint essence of magic coming from behind the door. When he tried to open the door he was repelled backwards and smashed right into a wall. 

Everyone else came rushing over to where Xellos was. 

"Mister Xellos what's going on?!" 

"Lina's in danger." 


	35. An Odd Feeling part 35

**An Odd Feeling**

**Part Thirty-five**

By Relm

Amelia and Sylphiel gasped, Gourry just stared with a blank stare and Mr. Hender frowned.

"Miss Lina's in danger! Oh no we have to do something about this!" Amelia stated in horror.

"What do you mean Mister Xellos?" Mr. Hender asked ignoring Amelia's outburst. "She's with Zelgadis, why would she be in danger?"

Xellos didn't answer Mr. Hender. Instead he examined the door. "He's put a barrier up. I can't break it unless I'm inside." Xellos phased out of the hallway and phased back right into the hallway. "Damnit! I can't get in!" Xellos punched the wall in frustration.

"Mister Xellos what is going on?"

Again Xellos refused to answer. He didn't even seem to hear them, his was racing with thoughts. "The sword! He doesn't know!" Xellos grinned before phasing out again, but this time he didn't reappear.

...

Zelgadis eyed the sword in Lina's hands. 'Is that the real one? It was stolen but perhaps he got it back.' He didn't question Lina on the sword he just got up to pace around the room making it seem as if he was looking for another book to read. "Lina do you really think it's possible?"

"What Zel?" Lina didn't looked up from her book.

"To stop the demon without harming whoever it possesses?" Zelgadis picked a random book from a shelf without looking at it.

"I'd like to hope so."

"But if it isn't?"

Lina frowned. "Then we might be left with no choice."

"If it came down to it you could kill him. It is within your capabilities." Zelgadis eyed Lina closely.

She grimaced. If it came down to a fight with Xellos, there was no way Lina could do it. Not without her magic. "I could." Lina said in a not so confident voice.

Zelgadis grinned out of Lina's view.

...

Xellos phased back to where the sword was hidden. It wasn't hidden in a dimensional pocket like before, it was actually hidden in the basement laboratory of Mr. Hender's library, in a box near the machine that "gave" Zelgadis life. The sword felt exhilarating to have in his hands.

Having the power from his acquired body and the power of the sword at his fingertips had a numbing sensation on his thoughts. His mind became muddled with thoughts of strength and power. The allure to use this power to dominate all was very strong.

Xellos shook his head. 'No what am I thinking? I don't want power. What a weak mind I must have to be swept away so easily. I have to do what I plan to do. I don't have much time left.' Xellos phased off with sword in hand.

...

Zelgadis forced his dark smile from his lips. "Lina I wanted to talk to you about something."

Lina didn't look up. "What?"

"Well it's been so strange since I woke up out of that machine. I haven't remembered a single thing and nothing seems familiar. Only…"

Lina looked over to meet his gaze. "Only what?"

"Only recently I've been feeling this strange feeling." Zelgadis stepped closer to Lina.

Lina blinked her eyes rapidly. 'He's not..?'

"And you're the center of it Lina." He leaned in closer.

Lina's face burned a bright crimson. 'What the..?' She was too shocked to react.

...

Xellos re-emerged in the hallway where Sylphiel, Gourry, Amelia and Mr. Hender stood very confused. "Mr. Hender what have you got so far about exercising a demon using the sword of light?"

"Hey that's my sword! How come you have it?" Gourry looked at him confusedly. He wasn't too happy about Lina taking his sword but the idea of Xellos with it made him shiver.

"Long story Gourry, I've give it back to you once I'm done. Now Mr. Hender?" Xellos looked over to Mr. Hender.

"Well I've got a few things." Mr. Hender said slowly. He was very well aware that this could very well be Zelgadis' ex-demon part possessing Xellos and causing this little ploy just to get the information he wants from Mr. Hender. But then again Mr. Hender doubted that the demon would be this smart to think of something like this. And what Xellos said about a barrier preventing anyone from getting in the room is true. There was a definite magic barrier surrounding the room. But still Mr. Hender was cautious. "Come with me and I'll show you." Mr. Hender motioned for Xellos to follow him.

Gourry, Sylphiel and Amelia stayed in the hall still trying to find ways to get into the room.

...

In another room not too far away where the disaster was happening was where Mr. Hender had most of his books that he had been looking through. He showed Xellos what he had. "It isn't much I don't really know what can really be done about the demon. I don't have the resources to do any of these things. And I don't even know if they are really possible or they would even work in our situation." Mr. Hender handed Xellos a few of the books.

Xellos picked up the books and sped read them. "Perhaps for a normal human this would be impossible, but for a monster it might just work."

...

The kiss was forced and cold. There was no passion or emotion to it at all. It was a kiss full of rage but not in a good way. It was angry and full of revulsion. Lina was in too much shock to react so she neither kissed him back nor pushed him away.

Zelgadis grinned evilly.

Lina felt a sudden rush a pain exploding in her stomach as she went flying backwards breaking the chair and table. When she finally realized what had happened she was up against the wall with the wind knocked out of her and her stomach burning in pain.

"Was that as good for you as it was for me?" Zelgadis laughed mockingly. "I thought I'd give him something that he wanted before I made his life a living hell." Zelgadis stalked closer to her.

Lina's eyes lit up with fear.

"I'm sorry dear did I hit you too hard? I just could stand it any longer. The thought that he had wanted to do that for so long makes me want to rip my guts out. Or his." He darkly laughed. "What's wrong Lina? Normally you'd be up and ready to beat the crap out of me, don't tell me I hit you that hard. Of course maybe it's because it's that time of the month is it?"

Lina didn't answer.

"I thought so. The timing couldn't be more perfect. I've been waiting a long time for this Lina Inverse. After all the years of having him use me and control me, I'm finally going to get the chance to have my vengeance. Starting with you." He laughed again, roaring like a mad man.

"We were wrong, we thought it was Xellos, but the whole time it was you." Lina's was voice was soft and forced with pain.

"Ironic isn't it? I had control Zelgadis almost right from the start after he got out of that machine. To think that he could just cast me aside after using me all this time just makes me madder." Zelgadis or Gar's eyes glowed a dark crimson.

...

"It's him isn't it?" Mr. Hender asked voicing his fear.

"Yes Gar, Zelgadis' old counterpart has control over him. And now Lina is in great danger."

"But how are you going to get in Mister Xellos? You already tried to teleport in and it didn't work."

"It's a barrier that works against monsters but what about little blue creatures?" A small smile graced Xellos' lips.

"Popo? He might be able to. But even so if he can get in he wont be able to get you in there. He can only teleport as long as nothing is touching him."

"I just need him to mess up the barrier a bit. Where is he?"


	36. An Odd Feeling part 36

**An Odd Feeling**

**Part Thirty-six**

By Relm

"I'm not sure. Popo likes to move around a lot, especially if he's bored. And seeing how he can teleport anywhere he likes-"

"It makes him even harder to find." Xellos finished off Mr. Hender's sentence. Xellos was really stressed. There wasn't much time. "Well where do you think he might be?"

"If he's hungry he could be in the kitchen."

Xellos grabbed Mr. Hender's arm and before he could even blink Xellos had them in the kitchen.

"Huh?" Was all that Mr. Hender could say.

Xellos frowned. "Popo's not here. Where else?"

"Well…"

...

Xellos teleported Mr. Hender and himself all throughout the library in search of the little blue spiky ball creature. But everywhere they looked Popo was nowhere to be found.

"Are you even sure that Popo could go through the barrier?" Mr. Hender asked after checking yet another room.

"If I know Gar then he didn't completely think things rationally. He made the barrier to keep me and you guys out but he wouldn't think to stop Popo. He's sloppy in that way especially if he's maddened with rage." Xellos sighed heavily. He remembered how Gar was. It was hard for him to rest with Gar screaming all the time. And Zelgadis needed him to keep Gar in place. Which meant he got none of his wanted rest and peace.

"Mister Xellos how do you know Gar? It was to my understanding that you only met Lina and company just a few short years ago."

Xellos didn't answer right away. "That's not something that I could answer quickly. It is a very long story-"

"And you don't have the time to tell it." Mr. Hender finished off Xellos' sentence.

"No I don't. Where does Popo sleep? And don't say lots of places." Xellos asked getting the subject off himself. The vein was bulging from his head.

"No, just one place. In the room near the front door."

Xellos teleported to Popo's room. And there, Popo blissfully slept on his bed of pillows on the floor.

"Popo!" Xellos said touching Popo to wake him.

"No don't do that!" Mr. Hender tried to warn Xellos, but he was too late.

Popo work with a start and teleported off in fright.

"Damnit!" Xellos cursed loudly. "Where did he go?"

"I don't know."

Xellos punched the wall. They didn't have time for this.

Popo teleported back into the room with sleepy eyes mumbling in a very ticked off voice. Popo wasn't a morning person and he didn't like being woken up. Much less in a startling way.

"Popo! You have to help me! It's a matter of life and death."

Popo blinked in confusion.

...

"Now what should I do first?" Zelgadis/Gar skulked closer over to Lina.

"You're not going to get away with this." Lina said in a near whisper. She felt white hot flashes of pain at the slightest movement. She was pretty damned sure she had a few things in her that were broken. 'How could he hit so hard? Zel had said that he got cursed because he wanted to be stronger… But he's not exactly weak.'

"Oh but I will Lina dearest. You know when I was trapped in his mind I had thought of so many ways to hurt you. To make you feel pain like you never felt it before. But why target you? Well you make me sick. The fact that he'd moon over you for countless hours made me want to vomit. I wanted to hurt you so badly just so that I could get him to stop. I wanted to hurt you to devastate him. Because it would be his fault. But I think hurting you in his body is a lot more fun. I know he's wake right now but I wonder if he knows what's going on right now. Is he aware? It wouldn't be fun if he missed all the action. But I don't want to wait. So you know what my little fireball, I am going to kill you, but it's going to be ever so slowly. And painful too." Zelgadis/Gar roared with sinister laughter as he punched her in the stomach again. His laughing was stopped short when he felt the sensation of outside forces trying to get in past the barrier. But the barrier still held vigilant. "Well it looks like the dummies finally figured out something was wrong. But they're too late. There isn't anything they can do now."

...

Popo returned with Mr. Hender and Xellos back to the hall where they had left Amelia, Gourry and Sylphiel.

The confused trio had been trying to get the door open since Mr. Hender and Xellos had left. But none of them had been successful.

"Any luck?" Mr. Hender asked once in the hall.

Gourry, Sylphiel and Amelia shook their heads. Gourry's brute force had been useless; the barrier just knocked him backwards. Sylphiel had tried every spell she could think of but the barrier just absorbed everything she threw. And Amelia was no help at all. She just now discovered that her spells had been sealed and it wasn't even that time of the month.

"Okay Popo listen to me very carefully. I need you to teleport into that room. You'll see a glowing barrier made with stones at the edges of the room. I need you to just take one of those stones and get the hell out of there. Do not let either Lina or Zelgadis see or hear you and you have to be very quick. Understand?" Xellos voice' was very serious.

Popo frowned. Being a monster Popo didn't trust Xellos all that much.

"Popo please listen to him. Lina's in grave danger."

Popo nodded with a determined face. He teleported into the room and doing so made him feel sick. Normally teleporting was so easy just like moving through air. But this teleport felt like he was moving through thick suffocating mud.

The sound of Zelgadis' now sinister voice snapped Popo back to reality. Popo looked for the closest stone and picked it up with his mouth. He shuddered at the sound of Zelgadis' voice so full with evil intent and hate. But Popo didn't linger. He teleported back to the hall and spat out the offending stone. This wasn't the first time that Popo had carried things with his mouth. But this was the first time where what he was carrying tasted so vile with evil energy. It made him want to burn his tongue off.

"Thank you Popo, that should be enough." Xellos phased into the room. Like Popo he too had a difficult time going past the now weakened barrier.


	37. An Odd Feeling part 37

**An Odd Feeling**

**Part Thirty-seven**

By Relm

Lina tried to scramble to her feet while Zelgadis/Gar was distracted but he was too quick for her.

Zelgadis/Gar grabbed her by the hair and pulled very hard dragging her to his feet. "Now, now my dear what were you planning on doing? You didn't want to leave me all alone did you? Don't you want to stay for the rest of the fun?" He whispered mockingly into her ear.

Lina shuddered and tried to get out of his grasp.

Zelgadis/Gar roared with laughter and threw her body into the wall again. "What's wrong? Aren't you going to make me pay? You want to kill me don't you? But of course if you kill me, you kill him. You can't hurt me even if you wanted to. It's quite sick and pathetic if you ask me. He doesn't even remember you and yet you still care!" Zelgadis/Gar stalked closer to her staring her down.

"Who says I can't hurt you?" Lina did a sweep kick knocking Zelgadis/Gar on the floor. She got her feet again and went to run for the door but was knocked down again.

Zelgadis/Gar grabbed Lina's ankle and pulled her to the ground with a mighty thud. He pounced on her and pinned her to the floor with her back on the ground. "Now what am I going to do with you?" Using all of his strength and his body weight Zelgadis/Gar kept Lina pinned with one arm and used the other to fish for Lina's dagger that she kept on her belt. He brought the blade dangerously close to her face.

Lina got cold shivers down her back as the cold metal caressed her skin. A bit of the sharp edge nipped the skin just under her chin on her left side of her face. Blood trickled down her neck slowly in drips.

"Whoops. Knives are dangerous things aren't they?" Zelgadis/Gar gave a little chuckle. He brought the dagger across her neck over and over but being ever so careful not to cut any of her skin. With a malicious grin Zelgadis/Gar scrapped the dagger hard across her right shoulder under her shoulder pad. He broke the clasp on the shoulder armour and the armour pads made a clunking noise as they rolled onto the floor away from Lina.

Lina tried to push Zelgadis/Gar off of her but she was too tired and out of breathe and he was too heavy for her to do more than a pathetic push.

Zelgadis/Gar put his hand on Lina's fresh wound on her shoulder and squeezed very hard. "You can't escape so don't even try." He squeezed her shoulder again.

Lina winced utter a small tortured cry. "Bastard…" Lina whispered painfully while hissing.

Zelgadis/Gar chuckled brining the dagger back up to her face on right side but this time he wasn't so gentile.

...

Xellos phased into the room. Lina was on the floor bleeding while Zelgadis had her pinned and was 'playing' with her dagger. Xellos' grasp on the sword of light and his own staff tightened as he used some of his power to hit Zelgadis sending him backwards into the wall.

Zelgadis/Gar shook off the dizzying sensation as he got to his feet and looked up. "YOU!"

"What's wrong unhappy to see me Zelgadis? Or should I say Gar?"

Zelgadis/Gar narrowed his eyes at the monster priest that stood before him. "How did you get out? And how did you get in here?"

"That's another reason why Zelgadis had control, because he's much smarter then you Gar." Xellos taunted him. He was trying to distract Zelgadis/Gar while Lina inched herself away. She couldn't get up, not only did she have broken or cracked ribs but her left ankle was badly sprained. All she could do was crawl on the floor.

"Oh so I'm the stupid one? Well whose in control now?" Zelgadis/Gar yelled out loud. He grabbed Lina by her bad ankle and dragged her back.

Xellos tried to get to Lina first but Zelgadis/Gar sent a strange wave of energy at Xellos preventing him from moving.

Lina yelped with pain and tried to get away but Zelgadis/Gar put the dagger to her neck again.

"I don't know why you'd care that much. I would have thought Greater Beast might benefit from the death of Lina Inverse. But I can't have you interfering. So for the time being you'll just have to stay there. I will kill Lina Inverse today and you can't stop me." Zelgadis/Gar's eyes glowed a dark red.

Xellos' eyes glowed yellow. "I wouldn't do that."

Zelgadis/Gar's eyes went wide. "No it's not possible! How can you be here?"

"Did you honestly think I was just going to disappear? I've been stuck here on this plane because of you. All I wanted to was to return to what I was I couldn't because of you." Xellos glared at Zelgadis/Gar.

"You've been the one that's been messing up all my plans!" Zelgadis/Gar roared with intense anger.

"That's right, and I'm going to mess up one more. You're not going to kill her; I'll make sure of that."

"Oh but you can't move. No doubt you don't know how to use the monster's body to his full extent but I know Zelgadis' very well. That astral spell will keep you stuck until it's removed. You can't get out." Zelgadis/Gar grabbed Lina's good arm and gave it a good twist.

"You forget I have the sword of light."

Zelgadis/Gar looked over at the sword on the floor and the sword in Xellos' hands. "You're bluffing."

Xellos gripped the sword tightly and released the lock on the hilt. The blade clanked to the floor with a loud crash. In the blade's place a blade of pure light emanated from the hilt. The spell holding Xellos crackled as the light of the sword went against the power of the spell. But with Xellos feeding power into the sword, the spell broke with a loud snap.

"You come near me I'll kill her." To prove his point, Zelgadis/Gar brought the dagger closer to Lina's neck and pulled her arm back more tightly.

Xellos didn't answer, he phased out.

Before Zelgadis/Gar could react Xellos phased in right next to him knocking the dagger out of his hand and Lina out of his grasp. Lina went flying across the room and landed hard.

"I'll kill you!" Zelgadis/Gar yelled as he went to throw another ball of energy at Xellos but Xellos was too quick.

Xellos smacked him hard with his staff knocking Zelgadis/Gar on his back. He went right at Zelgadis/Gar again with sword ready.

Zelgadis/Gar pulled his own sword from his belt and parried Xellos' attack.

The two started fighting with swords. Xellos have the obvious advantage with two weapons. But still Zelgadis/Gar was holding his own.

Lina though badly hurt dragged herself across the floor looking for something she could use to fight with. Her dagger lay halfway across the room but for lack of better weapons she went for it mentally cursing the whole way.

"Give up and I'll kill you quickly." Xellos struck Zelgadis/Gar with his staff again.

"You wouldn't kill me. You kill me you kill Zelgadis and I don't think you'd want to do that."

"I don't care about his life, all I want is to return to what I was and I'll kill both of you if I have to." Xellos swung the sword of light at Zelgadis/Gar again.

"You're lying; you're not going to kill him. Not after going through all this trouble."

"I just wanted to piss you off, and protecting Zelgadis worked didn't it?"

Zelgadis/Gar growled lunging wildly.

Lina grasped the dagger with her hands, pain flowing freely through both of her arms. And despite all the pain she felt she got up to her knees facing Xellos and Zelgadis/Gar.

"You're not going to win." Xellos taunted.

"As long as I take you with me I don't care." Zelgadis/Gar swung his sword in a fury but was stopped by a flying dagger that struck him in the leg.

It was all the distraction Xellos needed. He pushed Zelgadis/Gar to the floor and put the sword of light to his chest. Xellos chanted softly under his breath and put his hand on the top of the sword and his hand started to glow.

Zelgadis/Gar started to scream. But it wasn't Zelgadis' regular scream. It sounded like two distinctive voices screaming at the same time.

Xellos' chanting got louder and he was speaking in a language that not even Lina knew off.

After what seemed like centuries Zelgadis' screams ended, but Gar's got louder. Gar was forced out of Zelgadis' body. A turquoise and blue creature with red eyes emerged from Zelgadis' own body. Gar screamed and tried to claw Xellos but the monster priest easily dodged.

"Gar it's time to leave!" Xellos yelled swinging the sword of light slicing Gar's head off.

Gar's screams echoed throughout the library as his body disappeared into nothingness.

Xellos fell down to his butt panting loudly. "Lina are you all right?"

"I'll live. What are...?"

Xellos' body crumpled down to the floor. A brown and gray rock creature floated out of Xellos' body. It was obviously a golem but it was transparent like Zelgadis and Gar had been in their spirit forms. _I think you know what I am._

"The golem part? But I thought you disappeared after Zelgadis was separated from his chimera body."

_Like Gar I wasn't. I should have returned to the ground but I didn't. Every golem's desire to be at peace. To return to the ground it came from. Which is why I willingly helped Zelgadis contain Gar. By turning himself back he'd free me. But after doing the spell I found myself very much tied to this plane. I wanted to leave but as long as Gar and Zelgadis existed in spirit form I was trapped. _

"Does that mean you'll have to kill Zelgadis?"

_No. My body was tied to the old one. This one is different. I am not tied to it. But as long as Gar existed I existed. _

"So you helped us out so that we could stop Gar."

_Indeed I wanted some measure of revenge on Gar thus I wanted to mess up his plans. Which is odd since golems have no feelings. Which is why I feel that I was compelled to help you. I didn't care, but because Zelgadis cared for you all I was influenced. I share some of his emotions. _

"What will happen now? What's going to happen to Zelgadis and Xellos?"

_Xellos won't remember anything so perhaps you can use that to your advantage. As for Zelgadis, like emotions Gar and I shared his memories as well. No doubt having Gar possessing him might have struck a few cords in his memory. _

"And you?"

_I will return to what I was. Thank you for your help._

"No problem."

_You might want to see to his and your wounds. The barrier should be down and all of the effects from Gar's spells will be gone._

"Thank you."

_Goodbye._

"Goodbye."

The golem disappeared into thin air and Lina smiled. "Gourry, Amelia, Sylphiel, Mister Hender! You'd better get in here!" Lina yelled and the four came rushing in.

"Miss Lina what happened? Are you okay?" Everyone crowed around Lina.

Lina just grinned. "It's over now. Everything is going to be okay."

Zelgadis groaned in a painful tone. "What happened? Ow my leg!"

"Sorry, but you were kinda demonic there." Lina apologized.

"Huh? Really what happened? And why are you so hurt?" Zelgadis got up despite his leg and limped over to Lina.

"Yeah Miss Lina, what happened?"

"It's a long story…"


	38. An Odd Feeling Epilogue

**An Odd Feeling**

**Epilogue**

By Relm

Lina sat by a tree basking in the sunshine. It had been a few days since 'the incident'.

Lina and Zelgadis had been resting but were not completely healed. Though Amelia had regained her magical abilities she and Sylphiel weren't able to heal both Zelgadis and Lina fully.

Lina's dagger was magically enchanted. Any wounds caused by it were resistant to magic therefore making healing them with magic nearly impossible. So that left Lina with many nasty gashes and Zelgadis with one sore leg.

But Lina didn't care. Everything was close to being back to normal. After the incident Lina and Mister Hender explained everything. Amelia was the only one that was really offended that they kept it a secret from her. Sylphiel understood the situation and didn't hold anything against Lina and Mister Hender. Xellos didn't remember anything and was demanding to know what happened at every moment. But of course everyone chose not to divulge any information thus making the said monster a very unhappy and very grumpy monster. Gourry didn't understand what was going on but didn't care. As long as everyone was fine he didn't care. Zelgadis was another story…

Zelgadis didn't remember much about what happened when Gar possessed him. He did remember hurting Lina and that made him sick to his stomach. Because the golem had been right about Gar sharing Zelgadis' memories it jogged up some Zelgadis' memories. He didn't remember everything but he did remember a great deal about Lina and everyone else. Which was why he felt so guilty. And since then he had been avoiding Lina at every chance. Anytime she came into a room he left the room immediately. Lina wasn't too happy about being avoided but she could understand what he was feeling. And she wasn't going to push him into anything not after everything he'd gone through.

Lina sighed stretching despite the pain in her limbs. 'The sun sure is bright today.' Lina thought while smiling. 'Which is kinda nice considering how much rain and gloomy weather we've been having.' Lina closed her eyes with the intentions of dozing off but then a big person shaped shadow overshadowed her.

Lina looked up shielding her eyes to see the person's face. But since he was directly blocking the sun his face was totally shadowed. But she could tell by the outline of the hair whom it was. "Come here often?" Lina asked with a smirk.

"Mind if I join you?" Zelgadis asked still standing before her.

"Sure take a seat. But should you be walking around with your leg like that?" Lina asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Probably not." Zelgadis plopped himself down rather bluntly next to Lina on her right hissing from the pain in his leg.

"So…" Lina trailed off.

"So…" Zelgadis replied.

There was a small silence between them. A leaf blew by on the wind that breezed by them.

"Why have you been avoiding me?" Lina finally blurted out.

"I haven't been avoiding you." Zelgadis looked down trying to avoid her gaze.

"Yes you have. Even now you're doing. Sure you're sitting with me but you can't look me in the face."

"I can." Zelgadis answered defensively. But still he was looking down, like the blades of grass near his left hand were the most interesting things in the world.

"Then do it." Lina half ordered.

Zelgadis timidly looked up to meet her gaze. For a moment their eyes locked but that was all it was, a moment. Within seconds Zelgadis was back to staring at the grass.

"I don't care about what happened Zel. That wasn't you." Lina sighed. The only thing she saw in those sapphire orbs was guilt.

"But it was still my body. And my mind was still in there."

"A body you had no control over, and a mind that was locked away. You had no control over the situation and there would be no way you could have fought off Gar's mind even if you had known what was going on."

Zelgadis didn't answer. He just continued to look down.

"Why can't you just forget about what happened?"

Zelgadis looked up. "But I could have killed you!"

"You didn't, I'm still alive. And so are you. You're human…mostly, Gar is dead and we're both alive. Why can't you be happy about that?"

"Because of everything that happened leading up to now. I shouldn't have been so obsessed."

"You just wanted to be normal. There's nothing wrong with that. Besides I personally don't mind if I got a little banged up. You've gotten your cure and you don't have to worry about Gar anymore. To think you had that monster living inside your head all those years kinda gives me the creeps. It's quite possible that he could have broken the mental prison Rezo put him eventually if you stayed a chimera. So I figure its better that's he's gone now. It would have been a lot harder to deal with him if he was taking over your chimera body." Lina rationalized.

Zelgadis frowned. "I never thought about it like that before…"

"See? So everything is better then!" Lina went to give him a smack on the back remembering halfway through about the pain doing such an action would cause in the past. She braced herself for the pain but then was confused when instead of hurting her she hurt him. Well of course there was the pain of actually moving her arm but Lina didn't feel any pain from hitting Zelgadis. "Sorry! I forgot you weren't a chimera there for a moment." Lina laughed sheepishly.

Zelgadis just glared at her rubbing the now sore spot on his back.

"So how are you feeling?" Lina asked after another fit of silence.

"Between the waves of utter guilt and pain in my leg? Not too bad. I still have some fuzzy spots in my memory but it's coming back to me slowly. I'll get it all back eventually."

Lina grinned. "Such optimism from you is refreshing. Normally you're brooding all the time."

"I did not brood."

Lina laughed. "You always brooded! Wandering off in that little mind of yours in total misery."

Zelgadis didn't answer he just grumbled.

Lina was going to go on when she remember something. "You know I haven't punished you yet for seeing me in the nude." Lina's face went slightly red.

Zelgadis' eyes went very wide his face a bright red. "What? What are you talking about? I've never seen you- you- without clothing! I'd never do something like that!" Zelgadis sputtered out.

"Yes you did. When you went to 'save' me from Gar for the second time. I was taking a bath and you had lied to me about Gar being alive and then he tried to get at me but you stopped him. After which took a very nice long look at me with nothing on." Lina was still blushing but she was getting madder by the moment.

"I don't know what you're talking about! I don't remember any of that!" Zelgadis cried out. He didn't remember that moment, though he couldn't say that he wasn't unhappy about that. 'What the hell am I thinking?'

"So I guess that memory hasn't came back to you… How… convenient for you." Lina narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm not lying! I have no memory of that!"

Lina didn't answer she just continued to glare at him. But she eventually determined that he was telling the truth. Which was hard seeing how he still had a rather guilty look on his face and not from 'the incident' either. It was a different type of guilt. Like guilt from doing something 'bad'. So it made Lina wonder what exactly he was thinking about. 'He better not be thinking about _that_. Otherwise he's going to be in a world of pain.' "Then why do you look you do?"

"I don't!"

"You're not... picturing me... like _that _are you?" Lina's voice was deadly.

Zelgadis didn't answer he just inched away from her slowly.

"Well!"

"…"

Lina's face was even redder then before. She had figured he'd deny it but he wasn't!

"I'm not." Zelgadis said finally.

"Why'd it take you so long to answer!"

"Because!"

"Because why?"

"Because I was I'm sorry!" Zelgadis yelled and waited for the incoming fireball.

Lina was too embarrassed to do anything. Not that she could anyway. She was hurting too much to hit him and she couldn't use magic still.

"Huh? Oh right it's that time of the month!" Zelgadis exclaimed when he noticed the lack of being fried.

Lina smacked Zelgadis on the head despite the pain in her arm.

"I'm sorry okay?" Zelgadis apologized rubbing his head. "Does this mean we're even?"

Lina huffed crossing her arms. Out of embarrassment mostly. "Oh no you're going to get it once I have my magic back believe me." Lina said in a mock scowl.

There was a long silence between them again. Nether knew what to say after all that.

"So did I do anything else that I can't remember that I need to be punished for?" Zelgadis asked in semi-sarcastic voice.

Lina didn't answer. Instead she started to blush again.

Zelgadis looked at her funny. "What happened?"

"Nothing, nothing at all!" Lina insisted.

"Oh no something else happened. Tell me."

Lina let out a sigh before hesitantly speaking. "Zelgadis how much do you remember when Gar possessed you?"

Zelgadis frowned. "Some though I'd rather not think about it."

"Do you remember what Gar said when he first punched me in the stomach?"

Zelgadis looked at her confused. "I don't remember that part too well. Why?"

"Do you know what he did before he punched me in the stomach?"

Zelgadis shook his head.

Lina went red in the face again. 'He doesn't remember. Oh well then I don't need to mention that.'

"So what happened? What did he do with my body?" Zelgadis was very curious now and getting a little annoyed that she couldn't just spit it out.

"Nothing, nothing happened at all!" Lina said with a nervous laugh.

Zelgadis glared at her. Some images in his head came to mind but they were too muddled for him to pick anything out. But one image came to mind. 'That was before Gar though…' "You're lying but I have a question that I've been wanting answered since I started to get my memory back."

Lina paled. "What exactly?"

"I have this faint memory of waking up in bed with you. Why is that? What were we doing?"

Lina's eyes bugged out. She had forgotten about that. "Nothing! Nothing at all! You don't remember that? You entered my dream and we woke up like that. We weren't doing anything indecent I swear!"

"Oh," was all that Zelgadis could say. And it made sense because now he remembered it. "So what happened with Gar?" Zelgadis demanded again. He wasn't going to let this up.

Sadly Lina knew that fact as well. "Oh fine! If you're going to be that annoying about it!" Lina huffed in anger. "He kissed me." Lina's voice was barely audible.

"What?" Zelgadis asked dumbly. He heard her say it but he didn't believe it. 'I must have heard her wrong. That I would remember.'

"He kissed me." Lina said a little louder.

Now Zelgadis knew for sure that he heard her properly. And to make matters worse he started to remember what happened. And what Gar said afterwards. 'No… no… she knows! She knows! Damn you Gar! Even when you're dead you're making my life hell!' Zelgadis mentally cursed.

"And he told me that he wanted to give you something you wanted before making your life a living hell. And that he that it was something you had wanted for a long time and it repulsed him."

Zelgadis didn't answer but in his head he was yelling the same word over and over again. I would write the word but because small children could be reading this I choose not to.

"Zel?"

Zelgadis snapped back to reality. Not that he wanted to. Part of him wanted to crawl under a rock and disappear. The other part wanted to bury himself in the sand. Either way he wanted to hide. "Yes?" He managed with a squeaky voice.

"Was he telling the truth? Did you really want to kiss me?"

Zelgadis didn't answer he just nodded his head.

"So you have a crush on me then?" Lina's voice was a little too playful.

Again Zelgadis nodded. He didn't look at her. He didn't want to see what type of expression she had on her face.

"Well then we'll just have to keep it a secret for now for Amelia's sake." Lina stated matter-of-factly.

"Huh?" Zelgadis was confused.

"Unless you want to tell them all straight out? But I think sneaking around would be kinda fun." Lina smiled seductively.

"Huh?" Zelgadis was still confused. 'What is she saying…?'

"Because then we wouldn't have to worry about Xellos trying to bug us about it and Amelia wouldn't get upset. But then again when they do find out it wouldn't be good because we would have lied to them for such a long time and I don't think-"

"Lina what are you saying?" Zelgadis cut her off.

Lina didn't answer she just crawled over to Zelgadis. She brought her face up to his.

Zelgadis could feel her warm breath tickling his skin. He didn't know what she was doing. 'Is she going to…?'

But instead of doing what he figured Lina turned her face towards his left ear and whispered, "What do you think I'm saying?" She wrapped her arms around his neck even though it hurt to do so.

Zelgadis' heart skipped a beat. "What about Gourry?"

"What about him?" Lina asked moving her face to stare Zelgadis straight in the eyes.

"Don't you love him?"

"I might have thought for a time that I might have. But that ship sailed a long time ago." Lina wrapped her arms a little more around Zelgadis' neck while moving closer to him practically sitting on him. Which in turn made Zelgadis' body stiffen more. Lina had to refrain from grinning more. She liked making him nervous.

"You're interested in… me?" Zelgadis squeaked again.

It was Lina's turn to nod.

"You love me?"

Lina frowned. "That I don't know. But that's something I wouldn't mind trying and finding out."

Zelgadis was back to staring blankly again. Of all people Lina was the last person he'd expect to hear this from. "With me?"

"This isn't something you're used to isn't it?"

"I feel like this is a dream and I'm going to be woken up real soon. And it would probably be Xellos that wakes me up too."

"Would you be in this much pain if you were awake?" Lina asked referring to the wound in his leg.

"No."

"Then you're not dreaming."

There was a small silence between them again. Lina still had her arms around his neck with her face not very far from his.

Lina waited and waited and waited. But Zelgadis didn't move. He just stared at her like a deer caught in headlights. He hadn't moved at all not even his arms. Eventually Lina got fed up and was about to do something when she felt a pair of hands grab her at the waist pulling her downwards. His lips eagerly met with hers. The sudden movement caught Lina by surprise not expecting it but soon relaxed into the kiss.

Zelgadis' arms snaked more tightly around Lina's waist. One of his hands moved up Lina's back making swirling patterns with his fingertips. He brought that hand up to her face and caressed her cheek. And then he put his hands through her soft red hair marvelling at the touch.

The kiss was sweet and not too demanding. And it lasted a long while.

When it was over Lina let out a very content sigh as she leaned into Zelgadis putting her head on his chest.

"So was the kiss better?" Zelgadis asked stroking her hair. 'How I'm going to keep this a secret and not touch her hair around the others is beyond me.' He had always wanted to touch her hair but would have never dared to do it. And now that he could it was too additive.

"Yes." Lina purred.

Zelgadis couldn't help but smile. 'She's just like a cute little kitten.' "So we're keeping this a secret?"

"Yes. Still regretting you getting cured?"

"No, not at all Lina, not at all." Zelgadis said contently pulled Lina in a closer embrace.

**_The End. _**

_Author's Note: I have many fics floating around and this is the only multiparter non holiday fic that I have finished. It was a very strange little monster to write, it did come to life dictating many times how it wanted to progress. That being said it was a blast to write it and I hope that everyone who made it to the end enjoyed it as much I as I did. _


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